The Worcester Wolves took a step closer to the BBL Championship playoff places as they beat the Airwaves Plymouth Raiders 84-80, hitting thirteen three-pointers on the way.

Back-to-back wins for the Wolves keep them in tenth place, with this being only the third time in three years that they have beaten their South Coast rivals, who have now lost five games in a row.

The teams were close during the opening exchanges, until a rapid 8-0 run in less than a minute gave the Wolves a 14-6 lead with Middleton hitting consecutive three-pointers. Valencia halted the run with consecutive scores of his own for the visitors, but they succumbed to a further 7-2 tear, capped by a Normantas triple, to see the lead reach 21-12. But the teams ended the opening ten minutes much closer, at 23-20, after Anthony Martin made two assists and scored a three-pointer in an 8-0 response for Plymouth.

It was a similar pattern in the second as Middleton connected on another pair of treys within the opening 1.15 to help the score out to 33-24. The teams traded baskets before the lead reached double-figures for the first time at 41-31 on Harry Disy’s dunk. But the Raiders trimmed it to eight as the teams went into the locker rooms with the hosts leading 47-39.

After the break, the Wolves continued to connect from long range as the lead peaked at 56-41 after a pair of triples from Gilbert and one from Middleton within the first three minutes. But the Raiders stayed in touch with a 9-2 run, capped by a three from Allister Gall to return the deficit to eight at 58-50. And that is where it remained as the teams exchanged scores up to the end of the third at 67-59, with Gilbert connecting on his third trey of the third quarter.

The Wolves looked as though they had killed the game off in the fourth quarter, as they forced their way out to a 16-point lead. However, the Raiders came storming back to make it tight down the stretch, and that was a source of frustration for Wolves’ coach Paul James, who said:

“We made it hard for ourselves. I’m trying to develop a killer instinct into my players so we can turn winning positions into actual wins. Tonight we had a 16 point lead with less than seven minutes left, but our indiscipline let them into the game and we had to hang on to get the win.”