Worcester Wolves 64 Glasgow Rocks 61 (From Worcester News)

Worcester Wolves 64 Glasgow Rocks 61

8:00pm Sunday 11th March 2012 in Reports

A DAVID Watts three-point shot in the closing seconds earned Worcester Wolves victory over injury-hit Glasgow Rocks.

With all the top four teams winning, Worcester remain second in the British Basketball League with an 18-5 record and on a six-game winning streak.

At the start of Saturday’s game, the ball was tipped to Wolves forward Arnas Kazlauskas, who deftly passed it across court for Richie Gordon to power home a basket.

A brace of long-range scores from Sherrad Prezzie-Blue and Tommy Freeman came between another dunk from Gordon, helping Wolves to an 18-13 first-quarter lead.

Towards the end of the opening period, there was a blow for Rocks as star play-maker Mychal Green twisted awkwardly and had to be helped to the sidelines for treatment.

His replacement, Falkirk-born John Bunyan, came on to the court in confident mood, calmly directing the plays for his much more experienced team-mates.

A floater from Bunyan, followed by three points from Rocks player-coach Sterling Davis, edged them into their first advantage at 20-18.

A back-and-forth second quarter ensued with Gordon the only player able to significantly trouble the Wolves side of the scoreboard. Consecutive fouls by Prezzie-Blue on Bunyan as he drove to the basket led to four free-throws by the young point guard and a 34-29 scoreline with 40 seconds of the half left.

Wolves forward Watts netted his first long-range score to reduce the arrears but this was answered by Davis making a triple of his own as the half ended.

Freeman reduced the deficit to 37-35 just after half-time with a three-pointer.

An alley-oop score from Gordon finally regained Wolves the lead at 44-43 with four minutes left in the third quarter.

Another Bunyan basket levelled matters before Carlos Fernandez made one of two free-throws to give Wolves a 53-52 advantage heading into the final period.

Bunyan hobbled out of the game after a couple of minutes and Worcester took a 60-54 lead.

A steal and quick conversion from Rocks forward Danny Huffor reduced the deficit to four points.

The next two minutes saw Wolves miss two three-pointers, while Rocks missed one of their own. Gareth Murray ended the barren spell by sinking one to bring Rocks to within a point.

Worcester missed three more from behind the arc before Davis made a two-pointer that gave Glasgow a 61-60 lead with 47 seconds remaining.

After calling a time-out, Wolves’ first attempt at scoring resulted in a DeAundre Cranston foul that gave them another opportunity.

Wolves head coach Paul James called another time-out and a tense game resumed.

Gordon managed to feed the ball to Watts, who sank it from the corner to make it 63-61 to Wolves with just two seconds left on the clock.

Glasgow headed back down the court needing to score but Freeman stole the ball from Murray who had to foul him.

Freeman missed his first free-throw but converted his second to seal Worcester an extremely hard-fought 64-61 win.

James said: “It wasn’t a pretty game, the Rocks took us out of our rhythm. We drew up a play at the end and David stayed cool and made his shot.”

Wolves’ scorers were led by Gordon, who scored 26 points and grabbed 14 rebounds to earn a double-double.

Prezzie-Blue and Freeman were the next highest scorers with 15 and 14 respectively, while Davis led the way for Glasgow with 17.