KAI Williams says reaching the British Basketball League Trophy final with Worcester Wolves would be just reward for the players' hard work.

Wolves face Sheffield Sharks in the first leg of their semi-final clash at the English Institute of Sport tonight (7.30pm), looking to secure an advantage ahead of Wednesday's return at the University Arena.

The Championship leaders have never reached a major final under director of basketball Paul James and are determined to put that right.

Forward Williams said: "It would be great (to reach a final), it would be an honour and all our hard work would have paid off.

"All these guys have come together this year with the one common goal of winning silverware and the Championship.

"Accomplishing that is not going to be easy but it's definitely something that we're aiming to do.

"We've been talking all year about winning some silverware so this is another step in that direction."

Wolves, beaten 83-64 on their last visit to the EIS in November, are aiming to consign last Friday's 86-78 Championship defeat against Newcastle Eagles to history.

Williams, who returned to the club in December following a spell with Cheshire Phoenix, admits his side were not at their best but can take heart from having previously gone 14 games without defeat.

The 25-year-old said: "I definitely think that we under-performed but that's not to take anything from them because they played very well and executed their game plan.

"They deserved to win but we feel like we didn't give our best effort at both ends and it was an ugly game for us.

"Since I joined the club we've been playing pretty well and they were before that as well. We weren't playing perfectly by any means in games but we were definitely on a nice little run.

"With that said, as one run ends another one can start so hopefully we can get back on track."

Canadian-born Williams, whose brother Jamal also plays for Worcester, added: "I feel very fortunate to be back. I did enjoy my time in Cheshire but I was here last year and it's just continued where I left off.

"I'm happy to be back and it's great to be playing under coach James and playing alongside my brother as well."

He continued: "I feel very honoured to play alongside people like Will (Creekmore), Alex (Owumi) and Zaire (Taylor), my brother, Stefan (Djukic), Andreas (Schreiber) and all the uni guys are putting in a lot of work as well.

"I'm really looking forward to finishing the season strongly and hopefully we can do what we're capable of doing."