Worcester Wolves were forced to dig deep to hold on to top-spot in NBL Division One during a dramatic match at Liverpool Basketball Club on Saturday, writes Colin Taylor.
Wolves raced into a 52-26 half-time lead only to put forward a third-quarter performance that their coach, Dean Blake, described as ‘abysmal’.
However, despite a Liverpool comeback Fin Rennie's resilience and Wilfrid Santhe's sharp-shooting helped Worcester to snatch a 70-63 win.
Santhe opened the afternoon with a confident drive forward and grabbed a rebound to set up an Emmanuel Yeboah dunk. After pulling down a second rebound Santhe slotted home again for a 6-0 lead.
Defensive intensity saw Liverpool harassed into wayward shooting, multiple turnovers and repeated clock-violations.
Yeboah made the most of the hosts’ failure to inbound the ball in the permitted time to close out a comfortable 23-11 first-quarter cushion.
Earl Burgess hurled a long pass for Rennie to collect and convert and followed up with a double of baskets to increase the lead.
Successive three-pointers from Georgios Stergiopoulos and bully-ball plays from Burgess and Humberto Ferreira saw a half-time chasm between the teams.
But matters turned south for Worcester after the interval. As shot after shot went astray, Liverpool’s confidence grew.
It would take until the third minute of the second-half for Wolves to impact the scoreboard while Liverpool found their aim with ease.
The fourth quarter started with morale-sapped Worcester clinging to a vastly-reduced 56-49 advantage.
After only two minutes Liverpool centre Torin Dubiel rose up for a thunderous slam that brought spectators to their feet and nudged his side 57-56 ahead.
Liverpool still held sway at 63-61 with three minutes remaining. Two made Rennie free-throws and a follow-up thrust to the hoop produced a 65-63 reversal entering the final minute.
With a half-minute to go Santhe found space in the left-corner of the court with defenders seemingly daring him to shoot. He calmly accepted the invitation and danced in celebration of the ball swishing through the net to confirm victory.
Santhe and Burgess top-scored with 16 and 14 points respectively.
Birthday-boy Blake, while pleased with the gift of another win, was less enamoured with how his present was delivered.
He said: Birthday-boy Blake, while pleased to receive the gift of another win, was less enamoured with how his present was delivered.
He said: “We started off really well and, in the end, got the win. But maybe we got ahead of ourselves in the half-time break and our third quarter display was abysmal.
“We only scored four points while it felt like Liverpool had scored 30. It was perhaps a little bit of immaturity – we should have been in control of the game but we obviously weren’t.
“I said to the players that Liverpool were third in the table for a reason so don’t expect them to just lie down and of course the third quarter proved that.”
Next Saturday, February 14 (7.30pm) sees Wolves conclude their marathon four-game road schedule with a trip to Manchester Magic.
Blake added: “We’ve currently got the head-to-head record over all the teams around us at the top of the table. Manchester are one of those teams, so we certainly want to make sure we hold on to the record against them.”
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