THE interval came at the wrong time for Worcester Wolves as they entertained the illustrious Mersey Tigers in a BBL Trophy pool game.

Tigers have one of the biggest budgets for players in British basketball and it showed with all five of their starters making double digit scores.

But Mersey could not breach the home defence for the first three-and-a-half minutes and Worcester soon took an early advantage at 14-9.

The visitors slowly got into their stride and the quarter ended 18-15 to Wolves with David Watts continuing his good form on the way to a game high personal contribution of 18 points. Watts had good support from two of the Wolves starting five, Rod Middleton and Kastytis Normantas, with 12 each and the trio led the Wolves charge in the second quarter.

A fantastic run of quality offensive play took them on a 23-6 run to establish a 42-28 lead just before half-time.

With the home defence bolstered by the arrival of 6ft 8ins Justin Dobbins, all was set fair for Wolves.

However, Tigers came out blazing in the third quarter and stifled the Wolves attack to such an extent the hosts scored just seven points in the whole period.

Although Tigers only managed 18 themselves, the game had changed.

It was now neck-and-neck as the teams exchanged baskets at the start of the last quarter and it was 64-64 with minutes remaining.

International forward Andrew Thompson hit a vital three-pointer and a field goal but Wolves battled hard to level at 70-70 with just 23 seconds on the clock.

Two free throws from Tafari Toney edged the visitors in front and, although he missed two more, there was only 2.2 seconds left when Wolves had an opportunity to score again.

However, their final attack broke down and the game was over.

Director of basketball Paul James said: “We paid the price for a disastrous third quarter when we only managed seven points.

“All is not lost and we must now get the job done on our travels in the remaining two games in this competition.

“I was pleased with the contribution of Justin in his first game for us.

“He only arrived on Wednesday and is still obviously getting to know our drills but his 11 rebounds and eight scored were very valuable.”