DIRECTOR of basketball Paul James says Worcester Wolves have shown their intent early this season after defeating defending champions Leicester Riders.

Wolves made a stunning start to life at the new University Arena with a 73-61 victory in front of a packed crowd of 1,700.

The triumph, a week after they opened their British Basketball League campaign by thrashing Surrey United 117-60, was built off a determined defensive display.

James said: “We couldn’t have asked for anything more than this. Playing the defending league champions in front of a huge crowd and to pull it out of the bag the way we did was absolutely tremendous.

“It was a whole team performance. Zaire Taylor did a fantastic job with great plays but, as a unit to keep them down to 61 points, we might be the defensive team of the league.

“Somebody asked me if this was a good time to play them but it doesn’t matter when we come up against them. We know what we want to try and do and we’ve sent a message to the league.”

He continued: “We always knew it was going to be a tough game, we knew they were going to pressure our guards and we wanted to do the same to them.

“They slowed us down a little in the second quarter and we needed to get back to moving the ball well and limit them to one shot per possession. We did that really well in the second-half.

“We’ve worked so hard on our defence and the intensity and we played some super defence against a very good Leicester team.

“We were mentally and physically tough and Stefan Djukic was an unsung hero, he was tremendous.

“We’ve got some guys now who are going to do whatever it takes to win a ball game.”