HEAD coach Paul James believes his players have “forgotten how to win” after Plymouth Raiders condemned struggling Worcester Wolves to a fourth straight defeat.

Wolves were trailing by just three points going into the final five minutes before the hosts stormed to a 94-81 win in British Basketball League.

Their late slump at the Plymouth Pavilions on Sunday followed their collapse on Friday night when they let slip an 87-83 lead with 21 seconds to go to lose 89-88 to lowly Manchester Giants.

James said Wolves needed to improve their “composure”, but having not won since beating Giants 91-84 in late October, he admitted their poor form was playing on players’ minds.

“We played well until late on when a couple of minutes’ lack of concentration left us too big a deficit to chase and cost us the game,” said James, whose seventh-placed side travel to Leeds Force on Friday.

“We certainly need to work more on holding our composure.

“I guess when you are struggling as we are, you can forget how to win.

New signing Maurice Walker has impressed in his first two appearances since joining the club last week.

After marking his debut with a 32-point haul, he secured another stunning return of 26 points and 12 rebounds, supported inside by Jermel Kennedy with 18 points.

A competitive first quarter featured Walker immediately making his presence felt close to the hoop with a quartet of scores.

Worryingly, however, Plymouth were already finding their range with a double of three-pointers for both Daryl Corletto and Anton Grady included in a 20-17 lead.

Being fouled in the act of scoring allowed Walker to level matters and Wolves then went in front with a Kennedy bucket. A steal and subsequent dunk from Kennedy extended the advantage to 24-20.

Worcester stayed ahead until a couple of minutes after half-time before Raiders’ guard Rhys Carter slotted home consecutive triples.

When Kennedy was again on hand to snatch the ball from Carter and convert, it was 54-51 in favour of the visitors and Plymouth were calling for a steadying time out.

Another trio of Raiders threes helped them take the upper hand at 66-61 entering the final quarter.

Walker powered to the basket on successive plays, ignoring fouls from Grady, grabbing six quick points and closing the deficit to just 70-69 with seven minutes remaining Plymouth centre Cory Dixon picked up his fifth disqualifying foul when attempting to deter a Walker attack and the infraction was compounded with a bench technical.

At 75-72 with five minutes left, the contest was still on.

But over the next 30 seconds Raiders found enough space to slot home a brace of three-pointers.

A series of demoralising fumbles swiftly followed and suddenly Wolves were in a double-figure hole too deep to climb out of.