WORCESTER Wolves fought valiantly before becoming Newcastle Eagles’ latest victim as the north-east outfit stacked up their 11th victory 95-88 in their unbeaten start to the British Basketball League season.

Although there were several spells where it looked like Newcastle may pull away from their visitors, they were hauled back on each occasion with Worcester trailing by just three points as the contest entered its final minute.

The night saw another outstanding contribution from Wolves’ centre Perris Blackwell, who accumulated 31 points in addition to grabbing 10 rebounds as he duelled with his opposite number and Eagles’ top-scorer with 20, Darius Defoe.

Ben Eaves and Javier Mugica both sank three-pointers in a bright first quarter that ended tied at 24-24.

Ominously, Newcastle’s ageless forward Charles Smith took to the court towards the close of the period to open his scoring account.

Smith was soon on target from distance to edge some daylight between the teams as the second period began.

One-time Worcester player Stuart Thomson made a shot and a bonus free-throw to move the score to 34-28.

When Thomson dunked the ball home from a Smith assist, the advantage had widened to 42-32.

However, Mugica reached his hat-trick of triples to help drag the deficit back to 49-46 by half-time.

There was more back-and-forth after the interval as Defoe and Blackwell took turns to score inside.

Wolves’ guards Jay Couisnard and Josh Cameron got their first successes from the field during a third quarter that remained poised at 71-68 in favour of the hosts.

Four points from Smith pushed Eagles out to 77-70 before Cameron responded with a similar tally.

At 89-83 and just a minute-and-a-half remaining, Worcester coach Paul James called a time-out.

From the restart, Couisnard nailed a three to briefly give hope to his side but in the last seconds of the contest Newcastle displayed the composure which has earnt them their impeccable record this year.

The evening’s scoresheet showed twin 13-point inputs from Mugica and Ashton Khan with Couisnard chipping in with 11. Chief support for Defoe was Smith on 19.

Wolves will look to get back to winning ways tomorrow (3pm) when they host Plymouth Raiders at the University of Worcester Arena.