Worcester Wolves 82 Sheffield Sharks 66

Worcester Wolves move to 4th in the BBL and retain a winning record by handing the Sheffield Sharks their fifth loss of the season 82-66.

Rebounding was a huge factor in the in the game with Worcester doubling Sheffield’s total 48 to 24. Offensive rebounds in particular were the stand out from opening tip as Wolves newcomer Kalil Irving initiated a sequence where the team managed to pull down three consecutive offensive boards in one possession. Setting up Masiulis’ assist inside to Owumi who finished the play to add to his game leading 8 points in the 1st.

Starting fives:

Worcester Wolves: S.Ocitti, A Owumi, A Masiulis, C Fernandez, K Irving.
Sheffield Sharks: O.Babaola, M Tuck, M Williams, G Daye, A Bridge.

Fed by Micah Williams and Gage Daye, Sharks centre Olu Babalola was looking to attack the rim, using his size to attempt to overpower the home side’s defence. The Sharks couldn’t match the intensity of the Wolves in the first sequence however, as Worcester were able to double their score by the end of the first quarter which finished at 24-12.

Babalola’s aggressiveness brewed over into frustration in the 2nd as he put Arnas Kazlauskas on the line for three free throws after he fouled him on the perimeter. Head coach of the Sharks, Atiba Lyons wisely took his foul troubled big man out of the game.

Wolves centre Ocotti was also taken out of the game after he picked up his second foul. Sheffield’s half court sets created space for their guards to attack the rim in Ocotti’s absence, Willams and Daye seized this opportunity to put some points on the board, drawing a handful of fouls in the process. Their accurate free throw shooting alongside Williams’ impressive three triples in the quarter helped put the Sharks within 5 points of the home team with 1:53 to go in the half.

Alex Owumi continued his excellent shooting in the game nailing a three to put Worcester up 38-31 at halftime.

The third quarter was the lowest scoring quarter of the game as the away team stepped up their defence including a huge block by high flyer Colin Sing on Daniel Belgrave. Williams poured in 8 of the 12 points the Sharks managed to put on the board in the quarter. Carlos Fernandez took charge of the Wolves offense looking to impact the game with his passing ability, including setting up Owumi up for yet another three for one of his 7 assists in the game.

The fourth quarter was a three point shoot-out, with a succession of incredible back to back plays which included Sharks point guard Micah Williams stepping up and splashing two threes in two possessions. Williams finished the game with a team high 24. The home side didn’t go out quietly closing out the game with six triples from 4 different players before the 4:10 mark where the Sharks changed to a full court press. Thirteen points down they needed to force turnovers but point guard Owumi and his Worcester team mates remained composed and Sheffield were forced to start fouling with 1:12 to left in the game which ended 82-66 giving them that all important winning record this is now 5-4.

Speaking after the game he commented: “I was pleased with my performance tonight but my team deserve a lot of the credit, they did really well to find me open, Carlos Fernandez did a great job, he’s a great passer…I give them a lot of the credit.

“As far as the rebounding offensively goes, in practise we work really hard boxing out. We basically kill each other in practise, so when it gets to the game it makes it a lot easier. Teams know how scrappy we are, we have two big strong Lithuanian guys, we got a lot of good scrappy people. So as far as the rebounding goes that’s our strong point.

“I can’t wait for Prezzie to get here; I’ve known Prezzie for about 7 years. He’s actually one of the main reasons I came to this team so for me to come here and him not be here is kind of weird. Coach bought me in to play the off guard position. I played point guard in the previous countries I’ve played in. But Prezzie will come in and give me a relief, give me a little bit of a break from running the point.

“It’s all about teamwork; everyone’s going to get their fair share. It’s not about one player going off for 40 points a night, every night I’m not going to score 33. I’d rather get 10 or 12 assists, 5 steals, as long as we come out with the win and we’re comfortable that’s all that counts.”

Coach Paul James also commented on the win: “It was a good performance against a Sheffield Sharks team who have been playing better of late. A good weekend for us, we needed four points to stay in the hunt. We got the four points we deserved and needed to stay in the top half of the table.

“The offensive rebounding is certainly something I’ve been looking to do all season long. Certainly with Kalilil in the game, he’s fantastic at chasing the ball down and he kept a lot of the balls alive as did Stan Ocitti. It’s something that we’ve really been concentrating on, as well as looking after the ball as we have done of late.

“Alex will be back into his natural position which is the two guard and Prezzie will be the point guard. Alex has done a fantastic job in a difficult situation. He’s had to run the team and get his points and performed that really well. I think he’ll make team of the week with that performance tonight. But once Prezzie’s here he’ll be back in his natural position at shooting guard. I think Owumi will be more lethal for us when Prezzie’s back because he’s not going to have to bring the ball down, get the team into their offense and look for his as well. He can just get up and down the floor and leave all that stuff to Prezzie, get himself open and look for the opening. We’ll see a lot more from him.

New edition to the team Albert Ziwa did not get the chance to play tonight but: “he one of the 9 players that we have to nominate for the BBL, the University players we have to rotate them in and out. He is a mainstay of the team now as he’s not a University player anymore. But the other University players will be rotated between our BBL team and the Wolves 2nds.”

Play of the game: Masiulis ferocious block on Colin Sing which materialised into a Alex Owumi fast break bucket. He even taunted him with the Dikembe Mutombo finger wag.

MVP of the game was Alex Owumi who finished with a game high 33 points after shooting and impressive 75% from deep.

Next up for the Sharks is away at the Mersey Tigers on November 6th.

Worcester are also away against the Glasgow Rocks on November 4th.