WORCESTER Wolves opened their British Basketball League campaign in stunning fashion by upsetting the highly-touted Newcastle Eagles 86-81 on their own court.

Last May, Wolves overcame Newcastle at Wembley to lift the BBL play-off title after a ding-dong battle.

This season’s opening encounter was just as ferocious and once more the men from Worcester emerged victors.

But there was little to separate the teams throughout.

As the last minute approached, a thunderous dunk from Robert Thurman put Wolves 82-78 ahead.

However, Eagles’ Andy Thomson replied with a triple to once more put the outcome in the balance.

As a 3,000-strong home crowd roared their approval, Wolves head coach Paul James calmly instructed his troops to run a final set-play.

Point guard Chavis Holmes walked the ball around the court until Thurman positioned himself directly under the basket.

Once the ball was floated into his hands, Thurman greedily slammed it home.

Then a couple of free throws put the seal on the triumph.

Thurman also began the night’s scoring followed by another new recruit Remi Dibo.

Newcastle’s veteran forward Charles Smith made the biggest early impression with seven consecutive points for a 24-22 lead.

But, with six seconds of the first quarter left, Wolves forward Disraeli Lufadeju found Kalil Irving to nail a three-pointer.

Holmes accumulated seven points in the second period.

Time and again, he or fellow guard Alex Owumi found Thurman perfectly positioned to take advantage of their assists and make his way to 14 first-half points.

A 49-48 interval deficit was reversed when Jamal Williams made the first of a trio of successive baskets.

Back and forth went the advantage until the dying seconds of the third quarter.

Irving galloped towards his opponents’ basket to throw down a score and secure a bonus free throw after a clumsy foul.

With the game poised at 65-62 to the visitors, Smith and Thomson lit up the arena with long-range scores but Dibo silenced matters by doing likewise before Worcester’s eventual 86-81 success.

Wolves’ director of basketball James said: “It’s always hard to come to Newcastle, with a big crowd behind them, but this is the kind of game we needed to establish where we are in the scheme of things.

“Right now, our players will know that if we come out and execute our plays and run hard defence, we will be a tough team to beat.

“The end, where we ran the clock down for a big dunk from Robert, was an absolutely fantastic play.

“It’s something that we’ve worked on in practice especially for end-of-game situations and it worked perfectly in killing the game off.”

Thurman sparkled on his BBL debut with 27 points as well as 13 rebounds.

Forwards Williams and Dibo tallied 13 and 12 points respectively with Holmes and Owumi notching 11 and 10.