WORCESTER Wolves missed out on the National League Division Two title despite winning 83-70 at Cov-entry Crusaders.

Coventry needed a win to secure fourth place and a home tie in the play-offs while Wolves knew a win for them would maintain pressure on NW London who played Liverpool.

The game opened with a three pointer from Josh Cooprider while Pope responded for Coventry.

Wayne Robinson then hit another three pointer for Wolves. The visitors then switched offensive tactics and started finding the forwards inside the Coventry zone. Ty Shaw and Keith Jarrett capitalised and pushed the Wolves into a 21-20 lead.

The second quarter followed a similar trend and Jarrett scored 12 points in a ten minute spell. He was well supported by Colin Chiverton while fellow forward Shaw was watching from the bench after he collected his second personal foul.

At half time the crowd drew their breath as the teams were locked together at 39-39.

Following the interval, Renaldo Edmonson and Shaw were re-introduced and Wolves changed the tempo to an even faster pace. Cooprider, Robinson and Edmonson hit three pointers from the outside while Shaw and Chiverton were rebounding excellently at the defensive end of the court. Wolves raced into a 14 point lead yet in the closing minutes of the third quarter Crusaders came back at the visitors to reduce the deficit to only five points.

In the final stages Dave Jones retur-ned to score 12 points in a four min-ute spell. Cooprider again scored crucial long range efforts and Shaw continued to dominate.

Scorers: Jarrett 20, Shaw 14, Chiverton 14. Rebounders: Shaw 14, Chiverton 6, Jarrett 5.

Director of Basketball Mick Don-ovan said: "The history is that a sloppy home game against Liverpool cost us the title. The reality is that we now have to focus on winning the play-offs at the National Indoor Arena."

North West London won 88-81 at Liverpool to secure the title.