Saturday, October 22, 2005

WORCESTER Wolves opened the English League Division One season in style with a 101-60 victory at promoted Nottingham Knights.

Lithuanian Valdas Urbonavicius bagged 27 points with Ty Shaw adding 18 and Colin Chiverton 15.

With Nottingham losing one of their key big men to Sheffield Arrows and struggling so far, Wolves arrived with considerable confidence on Saturday and did not leave disappointed.

They won the tip and, after two unsuccessful shots recovered by rebounds, Urbonavicius was fed the ball to sink three and open the scoring.

After a slightly shaky start, Wolves built on the lead and left Nottingham fairly well behind.

In the next few minutes, the close-season signing sunk another three three-pointers plus a long-range two.

Nottingham defended hard but Worcester's offence continued to be reasonably successful.

Shaw closed the quarter in style with an interception and lay-up for two, leaving the score at 27-11 to Worcester.

Ben Potts opened the second quarter with a medium-range two-point jump-shot, followed by another two from Urbonavicius.

He appeared to be fouled when taking the shot, indicated it to the referees and was instantly given a technical foul.

In the middle of the quarter, Worcester's performance appeared to slump a little.

But they got back into their stride and continued to push hard, building the lead from 35-22 to 54-29 by the end of the quarter.

Stefan Gill sunk three to open the third quarter for the home team, but Worcester were quick to respond with a slam from Urbonavicius and another two points from Shaw.

Nottingham briefly made up some lost ground early on, but the visitors regrouped and pulled away again.

After eight minutes, Worcester led 69-47 and Joshua Oladimeji was flattened a few moments later while in attack and sunk both bonuses cleanly.

Matt Collins was then floored by Gill and no foul was called but was given a seemingly unfair technical foul after questioning the decision calmly.

Shaw intercepted the ball from a Knights' pass but was just too late to sink the shot before the buzzer which signalled Wolves' 77-52 lead.

The final quarter began with Andy Harper's first three-pointer of the game for Worcester.

From that point onwards, any hope Nottingham had of taking the lead or even closing the gap between the two teams faded rapidly.

Two more excellent three-pointers from Urbonavicius opened the gap further and deepened the dents in the Knights' confidence.

The home team began to look more and more tired as time went on.

Ross Cooney played for the last five minutes of the game, scoring a total of five points and tipping Wolves past 100.

The game closed on 101-60 to Worcester, leaving the dejected home side with much to think about.