Wolves have play-off place in sight

9:25am Saturday 5th April 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

WORCESTER Wolves hunt for a play-off place as the British Basketball League returns to the University of Worcester tomorrow (tip-off 4pm).

Skouson Harker's side take on Sheffield Sharks with the player-coach targeting sixth place in the BBL table.

"This is the big one for us. It could decide which of us finishes seventh - and sixth is still open as well," said Harker.

"We are really starting to play well together.

"But the hardest thing to coach is consistency and I think Sheffield are similar to Leicester in many ways - they would have finished higher if they'd started the season with the team they have now. We started really poorly so it was obvious we had to change something."

Wolves will be looking for their fourth straight victory against Sheffield when they host their play-off rivals tomorrow.

Sharks defeated Harker's side 96-86 at the EIS in the first meeting of the season.

Justice Graham led all scorers in the game with 31 points for the Sharks, ably assisted by Randy George who netted 28 points. He also pulled down a huge tally of 23 rebounds.

Anthony Paez led the Wolves' scoring with 27 points.

However, Wolves gained re-venge in the BBL Trophy, winning 125-121 in a high-scoring thriller in Yorkshire, with James Life and Paez each scoring 32 points.

Worcester then won 84-81 at home to wrap up their first place in a BBL competition semi-final.

That winning run against the Sharks continued when the sides met again in Sheffield in the league, with Wolves winning 97-83.

Worcester director of basketball Mick Donovan said: "We need the support of our home crowd in the remaining three games to really work in our favour.

"They have always played a massive part in everything that we have done since our formation in 2000.

"We really need them to get behind the team now as we strive to make our most significant impact as a basketball club."