WORCESTER Wolves will be mightily pleased to have secured back to back British League wins over the weekend ahead of Saturday’s big BBL Cup semi-final first-leg against the Ply-mouth Raiders.

On Saturday evening, the Wol-ves repelled the challenge of a plucky Mersey Tigers side, and then the following day did enough to see off a Guildford Heat 98-93.

After releasing three of their original American signings in order to pick up new point guard Drew Lasker, forward Mike Copeland from Glasgow Rocks, and one-time Wolves forward Shaun Durant, hopes were high for the new-look Heat.

Worcester’s victory was only secured late in the game which see-sawed throughout.

Two quick baskets from Lasker took his team into a very early 4-0 lead. A long-range score from Tommy Freeman, and a drive to the hoop from Carlos Fernandez pushed Wolves 5-4 ahead.

The rest of the quarter featured an explosion of scoring from both teams that ended with Wolves ahead at 31-27, after a brace of scores from outside the arc for Arnas Kazlauskas and a trio of similar scores by Wolves’ point guard Sherrad Prezzie-Blue.

Whilst Kazlauskas continued to prove deadly from the outside in the second period, Richie Gordon was able to rattle up four quick scores on the inside, including a powerful dunk over the Heat defenders midway through the period.

With just 37 seconds left in the half, Wolves’ spirits were dampened when Gordon reached in on the arm of Lasker for his third foul of the match.

A slender 51-49 interval advantage for the Wolves evaporated after only a minute when Heat guard Tayo Ogedengbe sank two foul shots and Copeland hit from distance.

After five minutes had elapsed Gordon had picked up a further foul and was obliged to take a seat on the Worcester bench. Shortly afterwards, a brief altercation with Heat’s Julius Joseph caused Kazlauskas to be called for an unsportsmanlike foul with Guildford making the resultant free throws to take a 70-64 lead.

Going into the final quarter trailing 78-72, it looked like the previous night’s exertions were taking their effect on Wolves.

When veteran guard Dean Williams entered play and scored an unchallenged basket from his first touch of the ball, the Heat led 85-78.

With four minutes remaining, Wolves trailed 87-84 but then benefited from a technical foul awarded against Heat coach Creon Raftopolous for disputing how much time one of his attackers was allowed to spend in the Wolves paint. Freeman made both bonus shots and followed these by floating home his fourth three-point score of the match to move his side in front at 89-87.

Neither side was able to deliver the killer blow until 41 seconds remaining, when Freeman stood ramrod straight in front of the oncoming Martelle McLemore, causing his opponent to be called for an offensive charging foul.

Once shots from Copeland and Joseph had both gone astray, the Heat were forced to foul to stop the clock, but were unable to prevent the Wolves victory.

Prezzie-Blue led the Wolves scorers with 24 points, followed by Freeman and Gordon with 23.