Sunday, March 19, 2006

WORCESTER Wolves returned to winning ways with a 93-74 victory over Essex and Herts Leopards.

They opened with a slam from Valdas Urbonavicius following an assist from Matt Collins. Urbonavicius followed this with two successful free throws, having been fouled on his way to the basket. The Lithuanian continued his scoring streak with another slam on Worcester's next offence but, by now, the visitors had caught up and the Wolves trailed 11-10.

Urbonavicius added to his account with three following a Worcester time-out. The two teams remained close throughout the remainder of the quarter with a free throw from Andy Harper giving Worcester a single-point edge at the end of the quarter.

After 15 seconds of play in the second quarter, the Leopards' Moore suffered a knee injury.

Coach Josh Cooprider gave some of the bench players a run during the third quarter. Ben Potts scored three points followed by another three from Urbonavicius moments later. The scores were level at half-time.

Worcester opened the third quarter strongly with points from Ty Shaw, Matt Collins, Colin Chiverton and Harper, but it was not enough to break away from the visitors who kept closely in touch, just 58-56 behind after six minutes of play.

But the Leopards began to tire visibly and they trailed by five points at the end of the third quarter.

Harper continued to add to his points haul with two impressive three pointers then an additional two points in the dying seconds of the game.

Ty Shaw was fouled quite heavily while shooting with seconds remaining, but failed to sink his bonuses.

Director of basketball Mick Donovan said: "After the recent performances we needed a response from the players and that was what we got.

"This was certainly the Wolves of earlier in the season. It is the perfect launch-pad for the challenge in the next seven days."