A CAPACITY crowd at the University of Worcester saw Worcester Wolves record an 81-78 victory over Surrey Heat in their British Basketball League play-off quarter-final first leg.

However, the hosts made hard work of things and often struggled to contain their opponents’ penetration to the basket while at the same time seeing many of their own attacks falter.

Wolves began the game in confident fashion with their captain Carlos Fernandez floating home a three-pointer and centre Arturas Masiulis blocking a shot attempt from his opposite number Frank Holmes, and then dunking the ball home at the other end.

However, this was to be the last Worcester lead until late in the contest as Surrey’s twin guards Chavis and Travis Holmes came to the fore.

The visitors held a 14-10 advantage after 10 minutes of play and the momentum built as they accumulated a healthy 34-20 cushion with three minutes of the half remaining.

Guard Alex Owumi was having an occasion to forget in his first taste of play-off basketball, missing all eight of his first shot attempts from the field. But his evening was ignited from the free throw line after an error by Heat forward Peter Simek.

Simek hacked at Owumi as he drove to the basket and compounded the situation by disputing the referee’s foul call. Owumi made both free throws awarded for the initial foul and calmly converted the bonus double of throws given for the technical offence.

Wolves had closed the gap to 40-35 at the break and they still trailed 62-57 going into the final period.

Mid-way through the last quarter matters stood at 70-66 in favour of the Heat before Owumi was once more on target to lessen the deficit.

Sherrad Prezzie-Blue then moved Wolves ahead at 71-70 by coolly drilling three foul shots.

The teams were tied at 75-75 with less than three minutes remaining when Masiulis was on hand to thunder the ball through the hoop.

A stirring crowd was brought to its feet when Owumi stole the ball and passed to Prezzie-Blue to lay-up for a 79-75 lead, which Worcester just held on to.

Owumi led the Wolves’ scorers with 22 points, supported by 16 points from Masiulis. Travis Holmes led the way for the Heat with 22 points, closely followed by his brother Chavis with 21.