Report: Debutants shine as Scorchers suffer Overtime Hurt

Surrey Scorchers came within seconds of beating 2nd place Worcester Wolves this afternoon as they fell to a 88-96 overtime defeat at Surrey Sports Park.

The hosts pegged back to level the scores on numerous occasions throughout the tie, even leading by 3 points in the final quarter, but were unable to hold on to take their first BBL Championship win in over a month.

Neither side were able to build a stable lead in the early exchanges, until Wolves pulled ahead late one to lead by 13 at the first break. Alhaji-Allie Fullah and Tayo Ogedengbe were partnering well for buckets in Q2 as the lead was reduced to 5 only for Wolves to surge again late on and lead by 8 at half time.

A tidy run of points in Q3 meant that Scorchers were able to pull back to within 2 points to end the period, setting up a tasty final period for the 718-strong home crowd.

Ogedengbe pocketed 1 from the line to hand Scorchers their first lead of the game at 73-72, before a baseline drive from Timothy ‘TJ’ Johnson on his debut earned Surrey a 3 point lead with 36.4secs left on the clock.

Wolves’ forward Orlan Jackman picked up a stray ball on the edge of the D with just 3 seconds left on the clock to put the game into overtime (81-all), as the multi-championship winning side showed their experience on the ball to close out the game an take an 88-96 win on the road.

A heart-breaking result for a hard-working Scorchers side, with TJ leading the Surrey pack thanks to a 16pt debut performance and Fullah bagging a 15pts/8 rbs and 100% field goal success on his first appearance in front of the home crowd.

Scorchers will turn their attentions back to the BBL Trophy on Saturday evening, when they travel to the Leicester Riders with one eye on a semi-final tie. The 7.30pm tip-off is LIVE and FREE at skysports.com and bbl.org.uk.

Box Scores

Surrey Scorchers
J. Williams – 3pts, 4rbs
A. Fullah – 15pts, 8rbs
H. Wilkins – 3pts, 1rb
K.C. Ross-Miller – 11pts, 2rbs
T. Johnson – 16pts, 3rbs
E. Dusha – 3pts, 0rbs
A. Schreiber – 2pts, 4rbs
C. Behrens –  7pts, 2rbs
T. Ogedengbe – 14pts, 4rbs
N. Schlitzer – 14pts, 0 rbs

Worcester Wolves
P. Blackwell – 18pts, 11rbs
J. Cousinard – 16pts, 7rbs
D. Lufadeju – 0pts, 0rbs
J. Dawes – 0pts, 0rbs
A. Khan – 9pts, 0rbs
J. Cameron – 6pts, 0rbs
O. Jackman – 14pts, 3rbs
J. Mugica – 16pts, 4rbs
P. Losonsky – 17pts, 3rbs