Saturday, December 10, 2005

WORCESTER Wolves kept their title ambitions on course with an 84-61 victory over Kings Lynn Fury.

Fury went into the match looking to improve on a record of just one win in the first half of the season.

Worcester, meanwhile, were buoyant after their decisive win over Worthing the week before.

Wolves won the tip but found the basket for the first time on their second offence, with two from Ty Shaw.

By the time Fury called their first time-out in the sixth minute, they were 14-4 down.

In the last few minutes of the quarter the home side continued to push hard, with points coming from Rob Clarke, Andy Harper and Valdas Urbonavicius.

Kings Lynn struggled to keep up with the pace and fell further behind, the quarter closing 24-8 in favour of the hosts.

Worcester's defence continued to be crippling for the Kings Lynn score as the Wolves managed to keep the visitors out for the full 24 seconds on a number of occasions.

Worcester coach Josh Cooprider gave the bench players, including new signing Joseph Ford, some court-time in the following few minutes.

They performed well against Fury's starting players, maintaining a healthy lead and allowing the starting five to rest. The Wolves maintained pressure for the rest of the quarter to extend their lead from the previous quarter to 43-23.

Rob Clarke opened the third quarter scoring for Worcester with two from the edge of the key. Andy Harper followed this up with a three off a feed from Shaw. Worcester maintained a comfortable pace, allowing the visitors to keep in step, but never allowing them to gain too much ground.

Half-way through the quarter, Worcester led 54-32 and Ty Shaw was called for an unsportsmanlike foul, giving the visitors free throws and possession. Play continued for the remainder of the quarter, closing at 67-45.

Worcester opened the final quarter of the game with two points from Shaw on the 24-second buzzer, which he followed up moments later with another close range two.

The Fury's Peacock was given a technical foul on six minutes, but Worcester failed to sink the bonuses.

Ben Potts closed the game for Worcester with two points.

Harper top-scored for Worcester with 28, followed by Shaw (22) and Urbonavicius (seven).