Wolves gift game to Raiders

It’s easy to comment on in hindsight, but right from the warm-up there was something ominous about the performance the Wolves were about to put in. A sharpness and energy were not evident and it felt a bit too routine.

Starting five for Worcester – Zimnickas, Freeman, Gordon, Watts and Prezzie-Blue.

Starting five for Plymouth – Williams, Ojo, Colbert, Smith and Rowe.

The home side started with loose inaccurate passing causing players to stretch for the ball and give up possession. Last week’s foul trouble looked on the cards again, as worryingly Worcester gave away two fouls early in the first quarter. In fact the whistling from the referees occurred so frequently that we got an ironic cheer from the crowd when a call went in Worcester’s favour before five minutes had elapsed. Something you would usually expect to hear much later in a game.

There did look to be encouragement for Wolves however, as there was clearly space to be exploited in the visitor’s key as one or two players were able to drive through far too easily. Tommy Freeman found space to drive down the lane but his basket was ruled out for travelling. With that call and a couple of missed opportunities at the basket the Raiders had opened up a five point lead midway through the quarter.

Loose passing continued to haunt the Wolves as Prezzie-Blue put one out of Freeman’s reach, but Gordon was working hard to get his team on terms and was finding himself under the opposition’s basket with regularity. Gordon drew a foul on an unsuccessful shot and took one from the line.

Then came two offensive fouls from the Raiders on successive possessions in what had been a stop start quarter with four fouls a piece against the teams.

Fernandez was exploiting the space that was there as he went down the lane for two and then drew the foul in the paint on the next possession. With two from Kaslauskas from the line prior to this spell the free-throws from Fernandez could have drawn Wolves level, but he failed to convert either attempt.

Worcester had shown good defence in the second five of the first quarter and with four points between the teams at the buzzer seemed to be settling down. It was on for Wolves if they could pick the right pass (Raiders led 19-15).

And it was a great start to the second for Wolves and Richie Gordon in particular, as he came up big with the ball in defence and went on to finish things off at the other end twice in a minute (taking his tally to 8 for the game).

The sides then traded baskets for a spell with Watts and Gordon netting and the men with the whistles were helped in letting the game flow by the no charge semi-circle; as a couple of drives which knocked the defender in the low-post back or over were deemed fair.

Gordon continued to show his athleticism as he moved quickly from end to end putting in the hard yards, but whilst Worcester were within a point they were struggling to convert. The following possession saw Worcester get three bites of the cherry from rebounds and fail to put any of them down.

In a physical and frantic game the Raiders then joined the handling error party with a loose pass setting up a great Worcester move. Fernandez and Prezzie-Blue traded passes to let in Worcester’s Point-Guard for a lay-up after a lovely overhead pass from Fernandez.

Freeman was not getting a look in from the perimeter having to shift the ball as he was not getting open. Kaslauskas was finding himself open from long range but didn’t have his eye in and kept coming up short.

Ben Smith was in good form for Raiders, weaving his way in then stepping back for the successful jump shot on a couple of occasions, and Plymouth took a five point lead thanks to an ‘and one’ from Smith and three points from the play.

Wolves were not winning the rebound in defence and were being made to pay, and a poor miss from Janusauskas saw Colbert first to react and he too drew the foul on a successful basket but failed to take the extra point.

Six points in it at the half in the visitor’s favour. The Wolves will have welcomed the break with their game lacking composure and feeling rushed. If Freeman could get to point where Kaslauskas was finding room but failing, then he would get more of an opportunity to do some damage.

Colbert had 14 points at the half with Riche Gordon on 12 and Prezzie-Blue 8, but the rest of the scores laid Worcester’s problems bare, as no other player had registered more than 2 points in the first twenty. Worcester were not playing as a team.

Prezzie-Blue came out hungry in the third and was using all his ball handling skills to try and bring his teammates in to play. As he looked for the open man and couldn’t find one, he stepped back as the clock ran down for a delicious three. But it was Plymouth’s Paul Williams who came out the strongest and he showed where he gets his reputation from, with excellent work on a number of possessions with his back to the basket. Let your concentration drop for a second and Williams will find a way past you and will score on you.

Worcester were showing flashes of good play just not consistently, but a two from Prezzie-Blue followed by a Watts three gave hope that they could put something together. It wasn’t to be however, as they came up short on their next two possessions and Colbert, Williams and Rowe (ably supported by Smith) were in no mood to go easy and opened up a ten point lead.

Smith then broke with the ball from his own half with Freeman tracking him, and as he struggled to control the ball Freeman was adjudged to have fouled the diminutive guard. Freeman had an incredulous look on his face and the crowd were giving the ref their thoughts. As the ref pointed to his torso to suggest contact, I think the only thing Freeman could have done wrong was exhale.

The game was taken away from Worcester in the third during a spell which saw them fail on nine consecutive visits to the basket and saw their visitors open up a massive 22 point lead. The tenth failed attempt for Wolves was a  three at the buzzer and it was a long way back for the home side.

The Worcester Wolverines (Worcester’s cheerleading squad) weren’t phased though and they showed they could ‘bring it’ between quarters.

And Gordon who had been one of the only ones to really bring his game to the court Saturday night started the fourth in typically aggressive fashion, upsetting Williams as he added four more for Wolves.

Not much has been said about the Raiders defence as apart from keeping Freeman quiet, it never felt like they were stopping Worcester from playing; the home side were defeating themselves in possession. But one excellent stand from the Raiders D pleased Gavin Love and his assistant, as Wolves were unable to find a man open and the clock ran down with no return for the home side’s efforts.

The lead was 21 with eight minutes left in the game.

Freeman was able to get involved more late on and took ten points out of the fourth quarter. Two jump shots showed that his accuracy was fine on the night, but he had seen the ball in the open so little that he couldn’t make an impact on the game.

For most of the game Worcester found everything but net from long range, and another Watts’ attempt for three came back off the rim. Gordon was still getting it done for Wolves though and he put Watts in with a bounce pass assist for the forward to finish things off.

But the Raiders had finished things off a long time ago, and there was just time for more discontent to set-in for Worcester as a technical foul was called against Gordon, and Coach James stood disinterested when making his plea for forgiveness. Gordon had been warned about handling above the rim earlier in the game and this was the call against him again which drew the T.

This was truly a case of a bad day at the office for Wolves. Gordon stepped up and Prezzie-Blue looked to make things happen, but with Watts and others failing to score from long range and Freeman not getting open until late it wasn’t on.

This was not a game where the opposition did a job on the home side. Despite a very good effort in defence at times, there was space to exploit in the Raider’s paint all game. Worcester even had a long spell when they forced Plymouth to keep coming up short.

You can’t simply put this one down to the percentages either. Yes, only 36% of field goals made and 25% of three-point shots downed does tell a story, but a lot of the inaccuracy was down to the positions players found themselves in having to try to make the shot. The points tally against three players looked healthy at the final buzzer with Gordon ending with 20 points and one rebound away from a double double. But what Worcester fans saw out there Saturday night was that these players still need time to learn each other’s games. The Wolves looked the most fluid in possession when the sparingly utilised Fernandez was on the court.

Wolves 62-85 Raiders.

(Gordon 20, Prezzie-Blue 14, Freeman 10)

(Williams 25, Colbert 24, Smith 9)