WORCESTER Wolves maintained their unbeaten start to the season by recording a double success in cup competitions over the weekend.

Wolves won 78-55 at Solent Stars in the National Trophy on Saturday and followed that up with a crushing 91-58 defeat of Tamar Valley Cannons in the National Cup third round yesterday.

Director of basketball Mick Donovan was delighted with the results.

He said: "In basketball they say how deep is your bench and we believe we have got a deep bench. This year we have got guys who want to get on the court and they are capable of doing it.

"The work the coaches are doing is beginning to pay off. We are playing very fluently and everybody is contributing."

That strength in depth was shown against Plymouth-based Tamar at the University of Worcester yesterday as Wolves booked their place in the National Cup quarter-finals.

Wolves flew out of the starting blocks and had blitzed into a 38-9 lead at the end of the first quarter, thanks to some excellent work from Valdas Urbonavicius and Matt Collins from distance and Ty Shaw and Colin Chiverton close in.

Tamar, who included former Plymouth Raiders stars Deng Deng and Myron Riley from the British Basketball League, did not know what had hit them and trailed by the same margin at 50-21 at half-time.

That lead was stretched to 72-36 at the end of the third quarter and had reached 91-58 at full-time. Urbonavicius top-scored with 18 points, while Ben Potts sank 17. Collins, Danny Williams and Chiverton all scored 11 and Rob Clarke chipped in with 10.

With Andy Harper available 24 hours previously, Wolves were able to further rotate their squad as they defeated Solent Stars 78-55 in Southampton.

Shaw was the top scorer with 20 points but he also made a staggering 21 rebounds during the match. Harper scored 18 points, as did Urbonavicius.

Wolves were again out the traps quickly and had opened up a 32-10 lead going into the second quarter and increased their lead to 46-26 by half-time.

Solent struggled to keep with Wolves and slipped further behind at 63-38 before succumbing 78-55.