Saturday, February 4, 2006

WORCESTER Wolves held onto the English Basketball League Division One top spot with Saturday's comfortable 107-77 victory over Nottingham Knights.

Andy Harper was again on form for Wolves at the University of Worcester with 26 points and Valdas Urbonavicius weighed in with 21.

Knights arrived just 15 minutes prior to tip-off so the game began 10 minutes late.

And their season-long habit of making squad changes continued with Anthony Haase returning after leaving just two weeks ago.

Worcester won the tip and Harper took a defensive rebound from the Knight's first shot, drove up court and found the basket from beyond the arc.

Nottingham did not open their account until nearly two minutes had elapsed.

Urbonavicius drained a long shot of his own and Matt Collins sunk a pair of free shots to put the home side on their way.

Good defence from Wolves restricted the visitors but McGill launched a shot on the buzzer from three metres outside the `D' and it dropped in to reduce the deficit to nine points.

Ben Potts joined the fray for the home side in the second period and calm shooting saw him score six points.

Collins continued to control the game from the point-guard spot, varying the plays and keeping the visitors on the back foot.

By half-time, Urbonavicius had racked up 15 points, Harper 14 and Collins 10 to give the home side a 57-37 advantage.

Four assists from Collins in the third period each resulted in long-range baskets, as Wolves piled on the pressure.

This was despite a minor technical hitch as parts of the scoreboard chose to take a break for a short while.

Knights staged something of a revival mid-way through the quarter with a 7-0 run to cut the Wolves lead to 11 points.

But four points from Ty Shaw, who totalled 14 during the game, restored the home side's dominance and the score was 77-62 at the final break.

Slick passing and good finishing in the first four minutes of the final period saw the Wolves build their lead to 25 points.

The visitors called time-out to try to stop the rot and Josh Cooprider introduced his bench players over the next couple of minutes.

They performed well, maintaining the pressure on the Nottingham basket and defending well.