Leven admirer Harker hopes Life wins battle

2:29pm Thursday 7th February 2008

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WORCESTER Wolves are hoping a former potential signing does not return to haunt them tomorrow night.

Tenth-placed Wolves travel to Fab Flournoy's British Basketball League leaders Newcastle Eagles (7.30).

Player-coach Skouson Harker expects fireworks when Eagles' new signing, Australian shooting guard Steve Leven, and Worcester's James Life, the BBL leading scorer, get going.

"We looked at Leven when we were making changes earlier in the season," admitted Harker.

"But we signed James Life instead. From what I saw, he's a massive talent and he'll give them a real lift. If it turns out to be the right team for him, the rest of the league had better watch out as he could catapult them even higher.

"They've been missing a player all season and even when they had Richard Midgley, things weren't quite right.

"It will be interesting to see how the rest of the team reacts because, for whatever reason, bringing in a new player is always a boost for a team.

"Knowing Fab, he'll want him to prove his worth before throwing him in for big minutes."

Harker takes heart from their previous win against the Eagles - 100-94 at home on January 5 - despite the fact they are separated by nine places in the BBL table.

He said: "When we beat them before, we went in and played hard and competitively.

"We've had games this season where we've expected to win and, because of that, we haven't.

"We need to go in with the attitude we had when we played Newcastle before and treat it like a play-off game."

The two sides had mixed fortunes in the BBL Trophy semi-finals last weekend with Eagles hammering Cheshire Jets but Wolves slipping 81-75 to Guildford Heat.

Eagles defeated Wolves 92-73 at home in November with Olu Babalola scoring 18 points.

But Life bagged 36 points in Wolves' first ever victory over Newcastle at the University of Worcester.

Flournoy said: "I saw Wolves against Birmingham before the cup final and again in the Trophy on Saturday and Harker's got them playing very well together as a team.

"They don't get upset with each other, they feed off each other, and even when they don't win they are always in the game.

"We lost there last time and we have to make sure we are better prepared than that.

"We have to pick up our defence because they are certainly not shy when it comes to scoring.

"They've got three main weapons in Anthony Paez, Life and Harker and the others support them well."