5:10pm Sunday 21st February 2010
WORCESTER Wolves were given a lesson in how to finish a game when they slipped to a British Basketball League defeat to Newcastle Eagles at the University of Worcester.
The game was level, and had been for the first three quarters of a hard-fought game, but the Eagles opened up the decisive fourth quarter with a 7-0 burst.
Four of these points went to the Great Britain captain Andrew Sullivan and Wolves could not get back on term, as much as they tried.
Worcester coach Paul James started with Rod Middleton, Danny Gilbert, Harry Disy, Giedrius Knysas and Modestas Sidlauskas.
It was Frenchman Disy who was the game’s most valuable player with a match tally of 21 points. There was also an eye-catching performance from the Lithuanian Kastytis Normantas.
However, the first quarter ended with a three-point lead to Newcastle and at half-time there was an identical margin as the teams went into the interval at 46- 43 to the Eagles.
The north-east team are second in the table and it was easy to see why as they shared the points around with five different players making double figures.
Point guard Reggie Jackson and Lyn-ard Stewart led the way with 16 each, while Joe Chapman totalled 15 as the Eagles relied on a tight game to wear the Wolves down.
Neither team got their three-point shooting going well with the home team only managing five from 21 attempts and the visitors only marginally better at three from 12.
The third quarter was as close as the previous two and Wolves did take a five-point lead at 53-48 but Newcastle got that straight back.
Devin Smith left the game at this point for five personal fouls and this was the second successive game a Wolves player has fouled out, but in truth both benches were mystified by some of the calls from the three match officials.
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