4:00pm Sunday 21st February 2010
Worcester Wolves’ second team romped to a 97-47 victory over Reading Rockets in the National League.
Coach Guy Evans made two changes to the starting line-up, as second years Joe Dack and Damian Cope began on court from the tip-off.
In the initial moments, neither side established their offence and although the Wolves had the better looks at the basket, Reading were steadfast in defence and soon took the lead midway through the period.
Worcester did not panic and settled down and opened up a 21-11 lead at the end of the first-quarter with Ben McGee inimpressive form.
Kynan O’Leary shone after the break with the reserve forward hitting an array of jumpers both in and outside the three-point line.
Scoring 14 points in the stanza, O’Leary helped further increase the lead and the visitors simply could not respond to what was soon becoming an excellent team showing. 51-20 at half-time.
As the second-half began, the hosts made the result elementary as they continued to keep the pressure on.
American Eric Chesser connected on several low post moves, and Cope added to his impressive rebounding tally, finishing with 14 for the game as the Wolves ended the third quarter 72-29 up.
The final 10 minutes provided an opportunity for the Univeristy of Worcester-based side to experiment with some new offensive moves and use the time as preparation for the remaining three league games.
The young team, however, approached the final period with the same attitude as the other three and took the final decision, 97-47.
Evans said: “This was an excellent team performance.
“We bounced back tremendously from last week and the players are very optimistic about the rest of the season.
“It was great to see players such as Kynan O’Leary contribute, as their patience and dilligent hard work are clearly paying off.”
n Worcester Wolves under 18s crashed to a 85-79 defeat to Notts Nova. Having begun slowly, the Wolves put on a 17-point in the second quarter to give themselves a nine-point half-time lead.
The Wolves came out after the break facing a determined Nova side and they had closed the gap to just one point at the start of the final quarter.
Nova’s Ballentine then went on a one-man mission to win the game — hitting 21 points, including five three pointers.
With just over a minute to go Nova led by 10 points and although Wolves battled well in the remaining time, they had too much of a deficit to make up.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/trade_directory/