London United visited Worcester after a convincing win at home to Solent the day before which was effectively a walk in the park for the home side.
Solent without leading scorer David Butterworth were no match for the Hounslow based West London Team, with United running away with an easy 35 point victory.
Sunday trip to Worcester was going to be a much tougher game for London as Worcester had beaten them in the recent Trophy competition at the semi-final stage and were looking to strengthen their position in the league further with another win.
London United won the tip and Van Elswyk opened the scoring with a lay-up for 2. Worcester's game started very slowly. Their first points came from Matt Collins with 3, but London very quickly pulled ahead. After 4 minutes, they led 11-5. United sunk shot after shot to move further and further into the lead. At the end of a great first quarter London led by a considerable 28-10 margin, playing some of their best basketball for a long time.
Worcester opened the second quarter with a fast passing move leading to 3 from Matt Collins. Andy Harper followed this up with 2 of his own on the next offence. Moments after being introduced into the game, Ben Potts made his mark with another 3 for Worcester. Whilst this began to eat into London's lead, they still had a considerable comfort buffer. After 4 minutes, United led by 38-24. Into the latter stages of the quarter, Worcester began to gain momentum and, lifted by the enthusiasm of the crowd, began to close rapidly on London. With 2 minutes remaining, London lead by 45-34. A number of high-energy offences and steals combined with good defence allowed Worcester to close further, cutting London's lead to a mere 47-42 by half time.
Worcester gradually closed in on London's lead eventually drawing level 52-52 after 3 from Matt Collins after 5 minutes of play had elapsed. For the next few minutes, the score remained very close as the teams exchanged baskets until London appeared to wake up to the situation and again pulled ahead by a widening margin with a 9 point run from Reid and Klocek. The last points of the quarter came from Worcester's final offence resulting in London leading by 67-59.
In the early stages of the fourth quarter, Worcester again piled the pressure on London in a successful attempt to regain ground lost in the latter stages of the previous quarter. A number of successful unanswered baskets culminating in a 3 from Andy Harper brought Worcester level with the visitors again after 2 minutes of play. London began to find the basket again through a huge Deppisch three and aggressive offence from Klocek and, as had happened minutes earlier, the two teams scored in step with a gap of no more than 2 points at any time. Again, after a few minutes, London began to eke out a lead of a few points. With 1 minute remaining, Worcester trailed 79-77 behind the visitors. Colin Chiverton was then fouled by Van Elswyk and sunk one of the two free throws. This left Worcester trailing by a single point with 17 seconds remaining. A number of fouls brought Worcester into foul trouble leading to two free throws for Santa Ataha who coolly sunk both and with just 13.3 seconds remaining, Worcester embarked on a final last-ditch offence in a bid to draw level for overtime against the odds, an off balance Andy Harper sunk an incredible arcing three pointer to the huge disappointment of United who thought they had the game won.
Worcester started the overtime period with possession, which Andy Harper quickly converted into 2 points for Worcester. This shot combined with another 5 points from Valdas Urbonavicius took Worcester 88-84 ahead with 2 minutes remaining. Fouls from London worsened their situation as Collins and Harper gladly accepted the free throws that resulted. Josh Cooprider called a timeout with 17.7 seconds of play remaining and the score at 94-86. Andy Harper sunk the last points of the game to give the Wolves a 10 point win of 96-86. United could only muster 5 overtime points through Ataha and Jagodka and felt bitterly disappointed to lose a game they believe they did enough to win. the positives were Mark Quashies performance in his best game of the year and Santa Ataha's obvious return to form running the point.
Top scorers for United were Ataha and Quashie on 18 and Deppisch on 15.
United now face another tough game at Reading Rockets on Sunday 26th Feb and then a massive home encounter against close rivals Worthing Thunder at Brunel on the 4th March.
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