WORCESTER Wolves' first visit to the capital for a National League Division One battle resulted in a narrow 95-92 defeat against a powerful and athletic Westminster Warriors team.

Worcester were without Fotos Marraganstis yet were otherwise unchanged from the side that beat Mansfield in the league opener last week.

Wolves were playing in front of a hostile crowd and it was the home team who raced into an early lead, basing their offensive play around the fast break.

Coach Stuart France called an early time-out and changed the defensive approach and the Wolves responded by getting players back behind the ball and stifling the Westminster 'run and gun' strategy.

Worcester by the second quarter were playing with confidence and running their offensive plays very effectively.

France was keen to get the ball to Chiverton, Hocking and Vinsonneau near the basket and the Solvason and Livingston were giving the forwards plenty of ball to establish their attacks

At half time the Wolves led by one point.

After the interval Worcester played some exceptional basketball at both ends of the court.

Livingston and Solvason continued to find the Worcester players in space and they raced into a 20 point lead.

Colin Chiverton was proving to be unstoppable for the bigger Westmin-ster forwards and he was steadily building a personal score.

The intensity from the crowd and the home team reached fever pitch in the final quarter.

Rhys Hocking committed his fifth foul and had to leave the game and the Wolves for some unknown reason started to force shots and abandon the disciplined approach that had put them in such a commanding position.

Slowly, Westminster ate away at Worcester's lead and with five seconds left the London team led 83-81.

Livingston found Chiverton with a long-range pass and the Worcester youngster stepped past one defender and rose to the basket.

When he released the ball to shoot a Westminster defender knocked it out of the ring as it was going through yet and also crashed Chiverton to the floor.

The referee gave the basket to Worcester and awarded Chiverton with one free foul shot, meaning the score was tied at 83-83 and Chiverton had one shot with no time remaining.

The pressure from the crowd towards Chiverton was intense and he missed the free shot.

The home team were on a massive high and finished the stronger in overtime to claim victory.

It was a very frustrating night for the Wolves as they had played some of their best basketball for two thirds of the game only to switch off in the final stages.

Wolves head coach Rick Solvason said: "We worked so hard to dictate the game only to give it away.

"While the performance at times gave us positives the outcome was a huge disappointment."

The Wolves play Hull at UCW on Saturday at 7pm.