A LATE let-down saw bottom club Worcester Wolves drop to a 79-66 defeat at London City Royals in the British Basketball League.

After fighting back from a third-quarter deficit to draw level at 61-61 with five minutes to play, a spell of careless ball-handling and ill-discipline by Wolves allowed London to stroll to a comfortable win.

Royals’ Will Neighbour made space to slot in a double of three-pointers to begin the match.

Seven points for Adam Thoseby were the feature of a first-quarter that ended tied at 14-14.

The second period opened in pedestrian fashion for Wolves as they watched London notch 11 points without reply.

After five minutes Darell Combs sprang to life to open his account and promptly nailed subsequent triples to drag Worcester back into contention, just 27-26 in arrears.

Miki Servera took advantage of a clever inbound pass from Jordan Whelan to nudge the visitors 31-30 ahead at the half-time interval.

Royals looked as if they would draw away after the break. However, more sharpshooting from Combs kept his side in touch, trailing 55-48 entering the final quarter.

Lester Prosper got to work close to the hoop and Combs floated home his fifth and sixth long-distance successes to erase the deficit.

But repeated errant passes, a failure to move the ball over the half-court line within the permitted eight seconds and not taking a shot within the permitted 24 seconds all combined to gift scores to London.

Royals’ latest signing Wes Washpun grabbed all of his team’s 13 closing points, including four free throws awarded after a series of technical fouls called against their opponents.

Combs led the scoring with 24 points. Prosper was the only other Worcester man to significantly impact the statistics with a 12-point and 13-rebound double-double showing.

Wolves will now have nearly a fortnight’s break before hosting Newcastle Eagles on Friday, February 1 (7.30pm).