Bristol Flyers 81-66 Worcester Wolves BBL Championship
14th December 2019
The Worcester Wolves hit the road for their second match in two days and travelled south down the M5 to take on the Bristol Flyers in the BBL Championship.
The Wolves had already got the better of Bristol three times since pre-season so this promised to be another intense affair.
With Jordan Williams still recovering from injury and Julius Van Sauers picking up a knock the previous night against Leicester Riders the Wolves found themselves short-handed in the front court.
The first quarter saw the home team get off to the better start with Flyers finding their way to the basket quickly to get on the score board but the Wolves soon picked up their game and brought themselves back into contention to trail by just a single point at the close of the first quarter with a highlight being a fast break transition dunk from Wolves guard Cortez Edwards.
The second quarter continued to see both teams exchanging baskets with Amir Williams once again in the thick of things on the boards and putting in a trademark dunk to rattle the backboard.
Raheem May-Thompson and Kofi Josephs kept a steady points tally going with good distribution from Cortez Edwards and Mark Hughes.
Worcester went into the third quarter trailing by a single play and continued to compete against a very physical Bristol side, both teams had droughts on scoring and the final second of the quarter saw Mark Hughes inbound to Amir Williams from the baseline for a tip in basket to put the Wolves within one point of the Flyers.
The game seemed to be going the same way as the previous three encounters in the final quarter but fatigue began to have an effect on the Wolves, limited rotations through injury and fouls took there toll which saw the Flyers pull away despite the Wolves best efforts and the home team took their first win in the Championship this season.
Kofi Josephs led the way in points again with twenty one while Amir Williams took fifteen rebounds and Raheem May-Thompson shot an impressive five from seven from three point territory.
Following the match Worcester Head Coach Matt Newby gave honest insight into the game.
“I feel that in the first half we showed a great deal of resilience after a tough start we found rhythm. Walking into the dressing room we were not totally satisfied but identified the positives and tried to look at what adjustments we could make.
It would be Bristol that made the strongest adjustment. The physicality and intensity of the game really ramped up and with a shorter rotation we were unable to absorb it.
Potentially fatigue was a factor following the hard-fought battle with Riders on Friday.
However,
Bristol had an equally demanding game with London City Royals Away
yesterday.
It’s a tough one to take as the game has a derby
flavour to it. But Coach K and his charges did a good job in negating what we
do well.
We now have to focus on what is a very busy
period.”
The Worcester Wolves will look to bounce back from this weekend’s results when they return to the University Of Worcester Arena on Friday 20th December when they welcome the Glasgow Rocks to Worcester for the first time this season.