WORCESTER Wolves relinquished their hold on the BBL Trophy they won last March after failing to overcome in-form Leicester Riders in the quarter-finals.

While it was always going to be tough to face a team who had lost just twice on their own court in over a year, Wolves made it even harder with a ponderous start.

Trailing by double-digits for much of the evening, hope finally arrived for a large band of travelling fans with a 12-0 run at the start of the last quarter.

But the supply of energy needed to drag the score back to 66-62 seemed to have been exhausted as Leicester regained their composure and secured the 80-71 success.

Riders produced double the number of assists of their visitors as well as gathering 50 per cent more rebounds.

Wolves’ coach Paul James said: “Two things stood out for me.

“Firstly, they killed us on the boards — our bigs needed to be more aggressive, making multiple efforts to get the ball rather than just one.

“Added to that, we had only 10 assists, which shows we didn’t run our offence the way we should have and didn’t get people open.”

Leicester laid down a marker from the outset with forward Trayvonn Wright first to the tip-off and guard Tyler Bernardini confidently floating home a three-pointer.

Going into the second quarter leading 25-21, Riders’ pattern of superiority, both on the inside and from the outside, had been set.

Their lead ballooned to 40-27 when a long shot attempt from Neil Watson bounced up off the ring and Wright gleefully leapt unhindered to jam the ball through the net. By half-time, the Riders advantage stood at 51-36.

Worcester captain Alex Owumi found his range to sink a couple of triples but there was scant support during the third quarter.

Entering the final period in command at 66-50, Leicester’s offense suddenly dried up.

Remi Dibo opened his account from distance and Paul Guede was accurate too.

Another Guede score prompted a Riders time-out.

From the restart, it was more of the same with Owumi again on target to bring matters to 66-61.

Faced by rejuvenated opponents, a harassed Watson then hastily in-bounded the ball from the end-line all the way into his own back-court.

But another time-out restored calm for the hosts and quelled Worcester’s revival.

James acknowledged his side’s late improvement but noted the damage had already been done.

He said: “We showed battling spirit towards the end but needed that at the start.

“In the first-half we were not allowed to play our game. It was too little too late.”

Owumi and Guede scored 19 and 15 points respectively. Wolves return to league action on Friday when hosting Bristol Flyers.

James added: “I’m disappointed to lose in the Trophy but we’re still fighting for the league title.

“We will regroup and work on running our offences better and showing more determination in rebounding.”