WORCESTER Wolves director of basketball Paul James has warned his team against complacency as they head to Mersey Tigers tonight in the BBL Cup quarter-finals (7.30).
The hosts are yet to win on their Knowsley Leisure and Culture Park court, while the Wolves haven’t tasted defeat on the road.
The Tigers have also struggled to hit the basket at home too, they haven’t scored more than 62 points in a game.
With a two-legged semi-final clash against Plymouth Raiders at stake, James is keen for his team to stretch their four-match winning run.
“The Tigers are not the force they used to be, that is quite clear,” James said.
“There has been a reshuffle there and there were some issues as to whether they would make the season.
“But one thing I do know is that Tony Garbelotto will have his team very organised and it is a game that we can’t take lightly.
“They have a couple of players who, on their day, are very dangerous.”
The Wolves have not been in action since the end of last month when they defeated Guildford Heat 88-77 in the league with Sherrad Prezzie-Blue and Tommy Freeman hitting 20 and 18 points respectively.
“We haven’t had any time off,” James said. “We have been in every day working on different things.
“There is a semi-final at stake tonight and we want to keep our run going.
“Some of the scrimmage sessions have been a little rusty, but we’ve been working very hard and hopefully, come tip-off, we will be right.”
With Tigers only winning one of their five matches this term, a 83-78 success at Che-shire Jets in the BBL Trophy, James knows this is a good chance for his side to put last season’s five-game losing run to Mersey behind them.
“There have been lots of positives we can take from how we have started the season,” the Wolves chief added.
“We want to keep our mo-mentum going and this a great opportunity to do that and qualify for the next round.”
Meanwhile, Wolves’ Central Venue League continues tonight (7pm) at the University of Worcester where Under 12s, 14s and 16s will be in action. Admission is free
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