Wolves rolled over by Riders, lose 79-61

BBL Championship
Saturday 20 October
Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders 79 – 61 Worcester Wolves

Starting Fives
Leicester Riders: Taylor, Couisnard, Sullivan, Losonsky, Fraley
Worcester Wolves: Owumi, Ocitti, Fernandez, Belgrave, Masiulis

The Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders kept their unbeaten start to the season going on Saturday as they took an early lead in their BBL Championship game and never looked back, eventually dispatching the out-of-sorts Wolves 79-61. The win sees the Riders move to 4-0 on the season while the Wolves drop to 3-4.

With ‘versatility’ being the theme of the 2012 Leicester Riders, it was inevitable that contributions were going to come from all corners and in the first period, swingman Jay Couisnard showed he has found his previously missing range from deep, canning three triples to help give the Riders a 24-16 lead heading into the next period.

In the second quarter, Olympian Drew Sullivan and centre John Fraley took control on offense, scoring seven and five respectively to extend the Riders lead at the half to 50-35.

The remainder of the game was about defence for Paternostro’s side as they held the visitors to only 26 points in the final two periods, an effort that was highlighted by the visitors scoring only four points in just over seven minutes.

Worcester, still without last season’s starting point guard Sherrad Prezzie-Blue, opted to let leading scorer Alex Owumi (16.6ppg) assume the role of point guard in order to run the offence and score when possible. But a constant full court press on Owumi wore down the 6’5 forward, resulting in him shooting a below-par 6-22, 0-6 from beyond the arc en route to 14 points (his lowest tally this season when playing more than 10 minutes).

Worcester received valuable contributions from their Lithuanian centre, 6’11 Arturas Masiulis, who battled hard against the Riders own beast in the middle, John Fraley (11 and 9), scoring 18 points and pulling down eight rebounds in the defeat.

After the game, Worcester Coach Paul James refused to answer any questions, opting instead to return to the locker room.

Play of the game:

The second quarter saw point guard Jorge Calvo break away with a defender closing in but rather than panic, the charismatic Spaniard dropped a behind the back bounce pass to the trailing Fraley to lay it in for two and the foul.

Game MVP:

Pavol Losonsky – Above all others, the Slovakian forward shone, scoring a game high 22 points on a variety of pull up jump shots and drives to the basket. (Honourable mention goes to point guard Zaire Taylor whose watertight defence frustrated Owumi throughout.)

Game quotes

Riders point guard Jorge Calvo: “Today, to play against that team, we talked about to pressure the court because their point guard – Prezzie-Blue – is not here, so we made a really good job; Connor, Zaire, Me.

Jay Couisnard: “I think earlier on in the season, I couldn’t find my (three point) stroke. I was missing a LOT of shots. I knew it just wasn’t coming off right but I think the last two games I’ve been finding my stroke. It’s just helped getting in the gym and shooting with my team-mates.”

Pavol Losonsky: “I was trying to make sure I played good defence and they (my team-mates) got me going on offense. I was just trying to be aggressive on the offensive end. I got pretty good looks, my team-mates found me open.”

Riders Coach Rob Paternostro: “We feel like Owumi is a really good player and is really important to them and I think Zaire Taylor really set the tone early on with his defence and his ball pressure.”

Next up:

Durham Wildcats vs Jelson Homes DMU Leicester Riders, Sunday 21 October, 16:00, Newton Aycliffe AC.

Mersey Tigers vs Worcester Wolves, Friday 26 October, 19:30, Knowsley Leisure & Culture Park