Sheffield Sharks 76 Worcester Wolves 75 (From Worcester News)

Sheffield Sharks 76 Worcester Wolves 75

4:50pm Sunday 27th November 2011 in Reports

WORCESTER Wolves’ eight-match unbeaten run came to a halt at Sheffield Sharks in the British Basketball League.

In recent games against Durham Wildcats and Plymouth Raiders, Wolves pulled off one-point victories.

But, on this occasion, the shoe was on the other foot as the Worcester side went down 76-75.

Wolves controlled three quarters of the game until a late flurry of carelessness with the ball and a points drought allowed the hosts to take what had often appeared an unlikely triumph.

Arnas Kazlauskas opened the scoring from long distance, quickly followed by a similar success from Carlos Fernandez.

With Wolves’ centre Richie Gordon scoring freely close to the basket, the visitors moved into a 22-18 lead at the end of the first period.

After a couple of minutes of the second quarter, two more Gordon scores forced Sheffield player-coach Atiba Lyons to call a time-out with his side trailing 31-21.

The 10-point Wolves advantage continued until the interval.

With the half drawing to a close, Kazlauskas floated home the third of his five three-pointers of the evening and converted a free-throw awarded when he was fouled in the process of scoring.

From a 42-32 half-time lead, the Wolves advantage hit its peak at 58-44 with two minutes left in the third quarter after forward Tommy Freeman buried his first basket of the game.

A 60-47 lead entering the final period looked comfortable enough as Sharks continued to misfire.

Only Great Britain veteran guard Nate Reinking was able to provide any firepower for the hosts, consistently scoring from outside the arc or dribbling through the Worcester defence.

However, in the first five minutes of the period, Wolves were only able to post four points to their opponents’ 10.

With four minutes left, a Kazlauskas turn-over and a technical foul called on Wolves coach Paul James helped reduce the visitors’ lead to 66-61.

A few seconds later, a Jimmy Langhurst three-pointer, swiftly followed by another score from Reinking, tied the game at 66-66.

With just over a minute left, Kazlauskas was fouled in the act of shooting from the outside and converted two of three foul shots to move his side in front at 72-71.

Fernandez made one free-throw for Wolves to edge ahead further.

Twenty-seven seconds remained when Reinking was fouled by Freeman while scoring and he converted the subsequent bonus free-throw for Sharks to retake the lead at 74-73.

A Worcester time-out was taken to set up a response and when Gordon soared over ex-Wolves centre Justin Dobbins to put them back in front at 75-74 it looked like his side were about to once more secure a late win.

With just seven seconds to play, Sharks once more turned to their floor general Reinking who confidently drove through defenders to finalise the 76-75 outcome and leave the Wolves to rue late mistakes.

A disappointed James said: “We were not as focused as we should have been in taking care of the ball down the stretch.

“We got frustrated at some of the calls and paid the price.”

Gordon and Reinking led the game’s scorers with 25 points apiece.

Kazlauskas (18) and Dobbins (16) were the game’s next highest.