COACH Paul James declared himself content with the all-round performance as Worcester Wolves triumphed 97-86 in their “must-win” match at Manchester Giants on Sunday.

Wolves nudged ahead of their hosts towards the close of the first quarter and built a double-digit lead by half-time, providing the platform to surge away after the break.

Giants forward David Kadiri grabbed eight points as his side led 14-10 early on but George Beamon drew gasps from the crowd with a shake-and-bake dribble that caused his mesmerised defender to drop to the floor, before moving the ball out for the returning Elvisi Dusha to sink a three-pointer.

Another clever Beamon assist, this time to Alex Navajas, and a couple of points of his own put Wolves 23-16 to the good going into the second period.

All-action Beamon supplied a trio of gifts for Dallin Bachynski to convert before Dusha joined him in the assists tally. Dusha drew opponents towards him but passed out to an open Dominic Ives who coolly accepted the present.

A 46-35 interval advantage was more than doubled over the next three minutes. Triples from Brandon Parrish and Navajas sat either side of an impressive coast-to-coast basket from Trayvon Palmer.

Entering the final quarter with a comfortable 19-point cushion, Worcester’s control continued with sturdy defence accompanied by numerous dashes to the hoop from Ashton Khan.

Bachynski totalled a season-high 22 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, earning high praise from James: “That was great from Dallin. There’s not too many bigs in this league with his size and strength so it was great that he made it count today. He can do that every game.

“This was a must-win game for us. We did a good job of controlling the tempo, playing with discipline on both attack and defence.”

Palmer and Beamon logged 18 and 16 points respectively, followed by Khan with 14.

Wolves hit the road again on Sunday with a trip to Surrey Scorchers.

“Surrey will be tough, but we’ve had a confidence-booster today and need to carry this form over to next weekend,” James added.