WORCESTER Wolves fought back from a half-time deficit to beat Myerscough Basketball Academy 76-67 in front of a big crowd of over 1000 at the University of Worcester Arena on Friday night.

The first five minutes of the evening saw Worcester drop into a 15-4 hole and unable to prevent Myerscough teenage prospect Daniel Nwauzu from dazzling to a quick-fire ten personal points.

Emmanuel Yeboah used a bounce pass from Wilfrid Santhe to open his scoring account and begin the home side’s response.

Another Yeboah basket as the first quarter wound down closed the gap to 19-14.

A spell of careless ball-handling and a pattern of errant shots let Myerscough re-build a 31-21 double-digit lead before Aryan Davoodi sank consecutive three-pointers and Yeboah hit a half-time buzzer-beater to close matters once more.

Determined Santhe and Yeboah drives set the tone for a different Wolves approach after the interval as they scrambled back into the contest.

Yeboah was impeded in the act of shooting a three and made the bonus free throw for an inspiring four-point play and James Harrop drove coast-to-coast to be similarly fouled and take a bonus point, slashing Myerscough’s advantage to just 45-44.

Another Davoodi triple finally edged the hosts ahead and aided a 52-50 lead entering the last quarter.

Surging with confidence, Worcester opened a crowd-pleasing bag of tricks.  Humberto Ferreira stole the ball at midcourt and pounded forwards and upwards for a two-handed flying slam dunk.

Matei Balteanu proved unstoppable close to the basket, the visitors were harassed into wild passes and clock violations and when Santhe shimmied and shook to the hoop the outcome was sealed.

"That was a very hard-fought win," admitted Coach Dean Blake. "We got shot opportunities in the first half but weren’t being aggressive enough to finish the shots.

"I told the guys that we needed to play with greater intent and stop allowing them to get the ball off us so easily.

"There was some very good play down the stretch and that allowed us to eventually pull out the win."

Wolves return to the University of Worcester Arena next Saturday 02 March (tip off 7.30pm) to host playoff-chasing Teesside Lions.

"Teesside have added some new players and are on a roll of results at the moment so will be another tough opponent," added Blake.

"But if we come into the match with the right mind-set and can get anything like the huge level of support from the fans we got today then we can do a job."