WORCESTER Wolves will aim to complete a perfect BBL Trophy group stage record when they host Birmingham Panthers tomorrow night (7.30pm).
Wolves have already sealed a place in the Trophy semi-finals, but player-coach Skouson Harker is still looking forward to the game.
He said: "It's the kind of game that is a coach's dream at this stage of the season.
"It counts for nothing, but it's a great chance to try out some different line-ups before the semi-finals and to get Ivan Brosko involved in our plays.
"It won't be easy, though. We had a close game against them at the NIA. They played very well and made a lot of shots. Nigel Lloyd slowed the game down a lot and, although it was high-scoring, we didn't get up as many shots as I would like."
With his side already eliminated from the competition, Panthers coach Lloyd intends to use the game as a chance to give assistant coach Paul Douglas the chance to gain some experience.
Lloyd said: "It's a bit of a non-event for us, so Dougy' is going to coach the game, and work on his coaching skills.
"We've only got a short bench, so everyone plays anyway, but it makes sense to give Dougy the chance to gain some experience. We'll still play hard, it's against a side who are our local rivals and we want to win."
Panthers picked up their fourth league victory of the season on Saturday night when they won an overtime thriller against PAWS London Capital, 79-71, leaving coach Lloyd a happy man.
He added: "I'm a lot happier than I was on Friday night, and it's good for the guys as well.
"If you can't be happy when you win, you're never going to be happy. We played well for the first three-quarters, but Steve Bucknall switched their defence around in the fourth period and they were more aggressive on offence.
"They wore us down and had a chance to win, but we regained our composure in overtime, and I was really pleased with how we played.
"They hadn't seen us play before, so they didn't know what we run, and we stole the win. The next two games are at their place, so it was important we got this one."
The sides have split their four meetings this season, with Panthers holding the head-to-head decider in the BBL Championship, and Wolves having won the BBL Trophy encounter at the NIA 95-91 a fortnight ago.
A tight game saw Wolves hold narrow leads at the end of each quarter and they went into the final period 73-72 ahead.
Birmingham fought throughout the fourth quarter but, with less than two minutes left, trailed 88-85 and Worcester kept their lead thanks to a flurry of free-throws at the close.
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