Worcester Wolves 83, Plymouth Raiders 111 (From Worcester News)

Worcester Wolves 83, Plymouth Raiders 111

8:01pm Sunday 11th December 2011 in Reports

WORCESTER Wolves left themselves with too much to do in the second leg of the BBL Cup semi-final after succumbing to a 28-point defeat in the first match to a powerful Plymouth Raiders team.

The sides had already met each other three times this season with an 85-62 home defeat for Wolves in October followed by consecutive victories at Plymouth and back in Worcester.

However, the recent upper hand for Wolves counted for little on Saturday evening as, on this occasion, they found themselves unable to cope with the all-round strength of their opponents.

Wolves began the game brightly in front of a packed crowd at the University of Worcester. Spanish forward Carlos Fernandez opened the scoring and a long-range basket from Tommy Freeman soon followed.

When Arnas Kazlauskas was fouled in the act of scoring and then made the subsequent free throw, Wolves led 10-5 with three minutes gone.

Consecutive sky hooks from Worcester centre Richie Gordon put the score to 16-11 and, when Freeman hit another shot from distance, followed by a neat drive to the hoop, Wolves’ lead reached what would be its widest of the night at 23-16.

Late first-quarter scores from Raiders’ forward Lehmon Colbert and point guard Jeremy Bell were enough to pull their team level at 23-23 going into the second period.

Wolves’ coach Paul James decided to call a time-out after two minutes of the period had elapsed when a single score from Freeman was the only reply to further baskets from Colbert and Bell and then a neat drive through from James Jones, brother of Worcester captain Callum Jones.

However, the break in play did little to stop the Plymouth momentum as James Jones then scored from outside the arc and Bell continued to have his way.

The Wolves woes only worsened when ex-Worcester guard Anthony Martin slotted home a three-pointer to take his side to the locker rooms leading 49-34.

After six minutes of the third quarter, Wolves had scored a mere five points, while the Raiders had hit 18 of their own as their impressive American duo of Bell and Colbert scored freely.

With Gordon frequently out-manned close to the basket, only Freeman from the outside provided any resistance. The disastrous third quarter ended with Worcester in arrears at 82-53.

An unguarded Paul Williams dunked the ball through Wolves’ hoop to begin the final period and it initially looked as if matters were going to get even worse for the hosts.

However, when Wolves guard Sherrad Prezzie-Blue added to the scoring punch of Freeman their team was at least able to prevent the margin of defeat widening.

The final statistics for the night show that over half of the Raiders shots fell.

In contrast, the Wolves only made a third of their attempts.

Reflecting on a difficult match for his players, coach James said: “I congratulate Plymouth. Everything they shot went in.”

Freeman top-scored for Wolves with 31 points, followed by Prezzie-Blue with 18. Bell led the Raiders scorers with 33, while Colbert snagged 27 as well as an impressive 13 rebounds.