Wolves freeze the Heat again

Worcester Wolves gained a satisfactory 88-77 victory over the Guildford Heat in the BBL Cup on Saturday night after a sensational final quarter in Worcestershire.

While the Heat’s Mike Martin and Julius Joseph combined for 43 points, the Wolves combined as a team with 20 assists, which proved crucial in the final ten minutes.

The Wolves top scorer was Tommy Freeman with 20 points followed by Sherrad Prezzie-Blue with 18. There was another dynamic duo on the court as Lithuanian pair Alex Zimnickas and Arnus Kazlauskas collected 15 points each. Worcester Coach Paul James had nothing but praise for the pair: “I thought Alex Zimnickas did a really good job for us while Arnas Kazlauskas produced a fantastic performance.” he said.

It was the visitors who made the bright start with 12 unanswered points early in the first period. But the Wolves managed to battle back to stay within four points at 21-17 at the sound of the first buzzer.

It was end-to-end intense play in the second period with both sides rallying for the lead. With two minutes to play, Kazlauskas nailed a three to give his side a slender one-point lead at 34-33. The Wolves were building with confidence as they headed to the changing rooms in control at 41-38.

Unfortunately, they lost that confidence in the third period with the Heats veteran pair Joseph and Martin sparking a 13-2 surge to regain the lead at 51-50.

The two sides rallied again to go into the final stanza all-square at 55.

But in the end, it was the Wolves who ran away with victory on a devastating 16-4 scoring run that the Heat could not recover from.