WORCESTER Wolves’ hopes of making the British Basketball League end-of-season play-offs were dealt a blow by a defeat at Sheffield Sharks.

Accurate shooting from guard Rod Middleton helped Wolves take a 24-16 first-quarter lead over this season’s BBL Cup winners.

With fellow Americans Mike Creppy and Daniel Gilbert contributing long-range baskets, Worcester’s dominance continued and a 51-39 advantage was built up by the end of the half.

Seven unanswered points from Sharks to open the second-half forced Wolves director of basketball Paul James to call an early time-out.

Once Worcester’s disciplined play was put back in place, a 65-56 lead was re-established.

However, with less than a minute left in the third quarter, Sheffield’s livewire guard Ryan Patton floated home a score from deep to put the home side in front for the first time in the game at 70-69.

A close contest followed for much of the final period with matters tied at 82-82 with three minutes remaining.

Just 47 seconds were left when Sharks’ Steve Dagostino fouled out of the game after a mid-court tussle with Middleton.

The resulting free-throws left Wolves in touch at 88-84 behind but there was to be no further scoring from the visitors as Sheffield went on to seal the victory from the foul-line.

Wolves assistant coach Alex Radu said: “We had the game in our hands for the first three quarters but were just unable to maintain our intensity for the whole game.”

The leading scorer for Worcester was Middleton with 22 points, followed by Justin Dobbins with 16.

Top-scorer for the Sharks was Patton with 24 points.