Worcester Wolves 91 Manchester Giants 74

WORCESTER Wolves found enough energy to see off visitors Manchester Giants 91-74 in the British Basketball League last night to end a gruelling spell of four games in a week.

Manchester came into the contest buoyed by a double-figure win in their last outing.

But Wolves badly needed a reaction to their 96-78 reversal at Plymouth Raiders on Wednesday in the BBL Trophy semi-final first leg.

A couple of former Worcester players made the biggest impact as the game began.

Lithuanian Donatas Visockis sank a three-pointer and point guard Callum Jones took a bonus point after being fouled in the act of scoring, aiding an early 11-5 lead for the visitors.

Maurice Walker repeatedly ground his way to the basket in response but Jones and Visockis combined for another 10 first-quarter points to maintain the gap.

As the period closed a hopelessly-misdirected inbound pass was seized upon by Manchester’s Sam Toluwase to leave Wolves trailing 28-22.

A stunning trio of three-pointers from Toluwase kept Wolves still in arrears at 37-32 four minutes before half-time.

But an equally-impressive burst of action from Wolves’ Danny Huffor drew the sides together.

Dispossessing Toluwase at mid-court, Huffor slammed the ball home.

A series of weaving drives to the hoop and accuracy from distance produced 11 personal points and nudged his team 43-42 ahead at the interval.

Jermel Kennedy debuted on the scoreboard after the break.

With Huffor and Walker still connecting and a tighter emphasis on defence Wolves began to pull clear.

A 65-56 advantage expanded further in the final period with Alex Navajas putting in a shift close to the hoop and Ashton Khan entertaining a large home crowd with several swirling successes.

Huffor and Walker topped Wolves scorers on 23 points apiece, while Jones led the way for Manchester with 18.

Coach Paul James was relieved to end Wolves’ busy spell with a victory, saying: “The players looked very tired, very heavy-legged.

"Despite that I’m pleased we were able to do enough to get the win.”

Wolves welcome back a trio of their former players to the University of Worcester Arena on Friday (7.30pm) when London Lions are the visitors.

Alex Owumi, Zaire Taylor and Kai Williams form the backbone of Lions’ team this year and will be keen to avenge a 100-71 slapping handed out to them by Wolves at the Copper Box Arena in January.

James said: “I’m expecting to see another big turnout of our fans getting behind the great squad of players we have here in Worcester and I’m expecting us to put another win on London.”