Worcester Wolves 93 Mersey Tigers 84 (From Worcester News)

Worcester Wolves 93 Mersey Tigers 84

6:04pm Sunday 4th December 2011 in Reports

WORCESTER Wolves put back-to-back defeats behind them as they saw off Mersey Tigers 93-84 in the British Basketball League.

Despite having comfortably beaten the Liverpudlians twice already this season, the latest encounter at the University of Worcester was much less one-sided.

Wolves forward Tommy Freeman opened the game with a score from distance and just a few seconds later Tigers coach Tony Garbelotto was awarded a technical foul for disputing a decision.

Freeman slotted two more long-range baskets and was joined by similar scores from David Watts and Carlos Fernandez.

Even a missed free-throw from Lithuanian forward Arnas Kazlauskas was slammed back through the hoop by Richie Gordon, helping his side to a 30-13 first-quarter advantage.

Wolves coach Paul James felt confident enough to substitute four of his usual starters. However, this saw the Tigers reduce the deficit to 33-24.

Even when the players were re-introduced, Tigers continued to chip away at the Worcester lead, going into the interval only 43-37 in arrears.

The visitors inched even closer with consecutive three-point scores from David Aliu and, when Richie Gordon was forced to the bench after his fourth foul midway through the third quarter, Wolves only led 55-54.

However, Freeman, who scored 30 points in total, once again found his range and a final quarter lead of 66-60 quickly accelerated to 78-63 with six minutes of the match remaining. The night before, the Tigers had trailed Chester Jets by 13 points going into the last quarter before securing victory and they hit back to trail 80-75.

Once more Wolves upped their offence and took the lead out to 88-76 after further scores from Watts and Freeman, before sealing victory.

Coach James said: “We made hard work of the game. I probably made a few too many substitutions in the first-half and that disrupted our rhythm.”