HEAD coach Paul James says Worcester Wolves are “in need of more manpower” after being knocked out of the BBL Cup by Surrey Scorchers on Sunday.

Surrey ended a run of ten successive defeats to Wolves with a 94-75 victory at the University of Worcester Arena to progress to the last four.

James admitted Wolves’ sixth loss of the season was “all their own doing”, but felt his players were “putting in too many minutes”.

Worcester have been on the look-out for two players to bolster their depleted squad and James appears to be close to making new additions.

“We’re hoping to have something to announce in the next few days,” said James who recently called time on Deondre McWhorter’s short spell at the club.

“We are certainly in need of more manpower – we have players playing out of position and putting in too many minutes.

“This has to be addressed.”

Wolves were looking to build on their 91-84 win over Manchester Giants last weekend, but they fell behind early and trailed by 49-35 at the interval.

A flicker of a revival during the third quarter was soon extinguished as Surrey ran out comfortable winners.

“It was all of our own doing,” James added.

“We had plenty of scoring opportunities that we didn’t finish off, leading to easy buckets for Surrey at the other end.”

With just six players logging significant minutes, a brisk opening would be important. Andrew Bachman scored twice in the first three minutes as the hosts led 6-1.

However, by a couple of minutes later Surrey had drawn level, moving on to close the first quarter ahead at 25-18 on the back of a trio of Worcester turnovers.

Aside from several determined Bachman drives to the hoop, there was little offensive output from Wolves.

Scorchers’ guard Quincy Taylor floated up a pass for his compatriot Chaz Rollins to slam home to also highlight Wolves’ defensive woes.

With two minutes remaining in the third quarter, a busy series of steals and assists by Jermel Kennedy had closed the gap to 60-53.

A Kennedy dunk was announced as Wolves’ 35,000th point since their elevation to the British Basketball League in 2006.

But the landmark could scarcely be celebrated amidst the final disheartening score-line.

Bachman led the Worcester scorers with 18 points, but could connect on only one of his five three-point attempts.

His team-mates fared no better, totalling just three successes from a sizeable 22 attempts.

Wolves will travel to Glasgow Rocks on Sunday (5pm) before returning to the University of Worcester Arena on Friday, November 18 to greet Manchester Giants.