Thames Valley Kings and Worcester Wolves put on a masterpiece that needed overtime to find a winner in the Kings Division Three final game of the 2017/18 Season made even more intense with promotion to Division Two on the line for Kings.
In the first quarter, It was Wolves who took an early 7-0 lead before Kings staged a fight back with Chris Nash and Reece and Liam Barker all finding the net, to take the score to Wolves 9 Kings 6 at the end of the quarter. The second quarter was back and forth action with Kings continuing to fight back in the first 4 minutes of the quarter with 10 unanswered points, before a Wolves fight back to bring the game to just one point at halftime, 19-18 to the Kings.
The 3rd was more of the same with end-to-end action, both teams attempting to nail down their defences but both offences hitting their targets in a high scoring quarter for both teams – Wolves regaining the lead by two points, 33-31. The final quarter again saw end-to-end action, with both teams trading the lead at times but as the final buzzer went in regulation time, the score was level at 48 points each.
5 intense minutes of Overtime followed and was intense as the 4th quarter, however, the turning point came as Wolves Tom Creese picked up his fifth foul of the day and was sent to the bench, with one of Wolves main attackers out of the game, Kings held on until to the final buzzer to pick up a huge 57-52 win.
With this win, Kings, Swansea Storm and Plymouth Raiders all finish on top with 20 points. According to League Rules – It will come down to “head-to-head” results to decide the winner of the league. With Kings, two wins over Raiders, and a Win and Lost against Storm but a 1 point aggregate score advantage (82-81) in those matches – Kings look set to be crowned champions of the league – However, the team will need to wait for final confirmation from the League before they can celebrate.
Kings Club Captain Wayne Burton stated
“Wow just wow!! I cannot believe it but we have really dug in at some matches this season but today just shows how committed as a team we are. Well done to all players today each and every one of you who played a part in this amazing season we’ve had! Massive support from the supporters today it really makes a difference for us to keep digging deep for the results.”
