Saturday, January 14, 2006

WORCESTER Wolves went top of the EBL Division One, thanks to an 83-66 victory at home to Kingston Wildcats.

Kingston travelled to Worcester on the back of an away win last week at Teesside, looking for a repeat performance.

They put up a good show in the first three quarters but the Wolves' experience finally overcame their resistance as they recorded another win.

Ty Shaw won the tip for the Wolves, but it was Kingston who opened the scoring 90 seconds later.

The Wolves opened an 11-4 lead after four minutes 30 seconds but then the Wildcats began matching the home team's baskets.

At the end of the first period, the score stood at 19-12, with Shaw having scored eight for the Wolves.

Worcester worked better together for the majority of the second period, with good passing moves and scores coming from six different players.

With one minute remaining, the score stood at 39-26. But the home team's concentration lapsed a little in the final minute and the visitors put together an 8-0 run to close the deficit to five points at half-time.

The third quarter was an even affair, with Kingston tying the score at 49-49 before the Wolves pulled back their five-point lead.

Colin Chiverton made nine points to rack up more than half the Worcester score in this period.

The Wolves gradually built their lead in the first five minutes, then two consecutive slams from Shaw and a three-pointer from Valdas Urbonavicius effectively ended the Wildcats' resistance.

A couple of late fouls by the visitors were converted into two points each by Matt Collins and Andy Harper to stretch the Wolves lead in the final minute.

Shaw top-scored for Wolves with 20 points, followed by Chiverton (19) and Harper (14)

With Worthing losing at home to City of Sheffield, the win was enough to give Wolves the top spot but the Sussex side do have a game in hand.

Worcester host Teesside Mohawks in a league game on Sunday (tip-off 3pm).