BBL Championship: Wolves 97 Cheshire 84
Worcester Wolves earned themselves the winning head-to-head record over off-court troubled Cheshire at the University of Worcester on Saturday night, with a 97-84 victory.
Starting fives:
Worcester: Thomson, Masiulis, Fernandez, Owumi and Ocitti.
Cheshire: Marks, Haskins, Moore, Bland and Myers.
Wolves big man Samuel Ocitti opened scoring having been found wide open by Stuart Thomson, a new edition to Worcester starting five for three. Coming out the gates with authority Worcester took a 11-4 lead, but an emergence of sloppy play inside and a highly motivated Cheshire squad, fueled by point guard Gabe Haskins, were not about to let the home side run away with the game.
The score remained 11-4 with just over three minutes left in the quarter, until Kalil Irving was subbed into the game by coach Paul James. Irving stole the ball in his own half dished it off to a team mate and was repaid for his efforts with a fast break slam. A huge burst of energy from the 19-year-old ignited the Wolves who pushed ahead to a 20-14 lead.
The first quarter was by far the lowest in terms of scoring, Worcester failed to capitalise on several opportunities in the paint, including missing a pair of close to wide open lay ups and a missed dunk from Ocitti.
Cheshire came out in attack mode in the second as Chez Marks hit two consecutive threes, with Shawn Myers and Alif Bland also starting to hit their jumpshots. The lead changed hands six times as each side looked to break away, but neither could construct more than a five point advantage.
After a series of unselfish passes from Cheshire, Marks hit a buzzer beater for three from the bottom left corner, and having made the shot shouted ‘This is what I do!’ to the following Cheshire fans support after putting them up 47-42 going into halftime.
Into the third quarter, and looking to force turnovers from Calvin Morant-Hudson who has limited experience in the BBL, Cheshire adopted a full court press which resulted in Myers adding another buzzer beating three as his side went into the fourth with a one point advantage 67-66.
It was the Wolves’ big men took over the fourth quarter however, as point guard Alex Owumi fed Arturas Masiulis the ball as he drew the foul for his third three point play of the game. Owumi finished the game with a game high 8 assists while Irving’s energy also had not fizzled out from his impressive first quarter, grabbing four key offensive rebounds and a series of lay ups and dunks in succession. Cheshire were outscored 30–18 in the final quarter despite Marks’ offensive efforts hitting his fifth three pointer of the game finishing with a game high 25 on 83% shooting from beyond the arch.
Paul James commented post-game: “I think we started off pretty well in the first three or four minutes then we threatened to blow the game wide open. We got stops, we got two, three, four stops in a row and then failed to convert by turning the ball over, turnovers have really been our Achilles’ heel so far this season.
“I can’t tell you what I told them at half time as it would turn the air blue but it’s just one of those things I’ve been banging on about to them all season long about how we have to look after the ball. I know it’s hard as we haven’t got our natural point guard in the game so I’m asking several people to handle the ball more, much more than I would usual ask them to do so that’s got something to do with it, but still the nature of our turnovers are really sloppy. Guys not thinking and not being focused so that’s why I’m so disappointed in that aspect.”
The efforts of the youngsters in Irving and Morant-Hudson, James was impressed, and content that progress is being made with such talent: “I think their performance was good and now is the time to really give them some experience at this level, it shows that I trust and believe in their abilities. Certainly Kalil has been a revelation and tonight came in the game, showed fantastic spark and fantastic energy. He had 20 points and a bunch of rebounds; that’s a player who is playing with no fear and a lot of commitment -who has shown that he loves the game, I am really pleased for him. Calvin Morant-Hudson at the point guard did a pretty good job as well, taking care of the ball for us. Two young kids who are 19 years old, who are hopefully going to be around for the next two or three years and are going to bud well for us at Worcester Wolves.”
The wait is almost over as well for the return of Sherrad Prezzie-Blue: “Right now we’re just waiting for him to get his passport back from the embassy so once he’s got that he’ll be on the next flight. The good thing is now that we don’t play for two another two weeks so hopefully Prezzie will come in next week some time. We’ll have a good seven to eight days of training for him to get to know his team, the team that I’ve built for him and push on from then.”
Cheshire’s player-coach, Chez Marks was upbeat despite defeat: “We’ve got a lot of motivation within the camp at the moment, all the guys are on board, trying to pull together to ensure we’re playing in the league this year.
“The majority of the game the team played well. Worcester hit a lot of shots down the stretch in the 4th quarter, our guys maybe tired a little, and they didn’t execute as well in the last couple of minutes. They hit a lot of shots which hurt us at the end. ”
“The reception to the saving the ‘Jets’ program is very, very positive and we’re constantly in talks with people every day about trying to do that. We’ve got until the end of the month to save the club; people are behind us which is excellent and that’s what we want to continue so that we can continue for the foreseeable future.”
Play of the game: Kalil Irving cutting down the middle and throwing it down on his defender with authority.
Game MVP: Without a doubt, Kalil Irving. He provided that extra bit of energy that the Wolves needed to get the win, playing good defence, rebounding on both sides of the floor well and getting a number of big time dunks that helped get his team mates and the crowd going.
Wolves top scorers: Masiulis 22, Irving 20, Owumi 18
Cheshire top scorers: Marks 25, Haskins 22, Myers 17
Next up for Worcester Wolves is a two week break until their game against London Lions on the 23rd of November.
Cheshire play their re-arranged opening game fixture against Manchester Giants on the 18th November.
