WORCESTER Wolves boosted their British Basketball League preparations with a thrilling last-second 71-70 victory over Bristol Flyers in the final pre-season friendly.

Gentrey Thomas converted an unlikely shot to put Flyers 70-69 up with a few seconds to go at the University of Worcester Arena.

But after a time-out American recruit Cortez Edwards released his winning shot a fraction before the full-time hooter.

Wolves coach Matt Newby said: “We executed precisely what was drawn up in the huddle and put the ball in the hands of a thoroughbred athlete who finished things off for us.”

Worcester led 22-16 in the first quarter and extended it to 34-22 with Edwards, Raheem May-Thompson and Mark Hughes on target from afar.

A May-Thompson dunk made it 44-25 at half-time.

Bristol eventually overturned the lead to go 62-61 up with five minutes left.

But repeated bustles to the hoop from forward Jordan Williams kept the pot boiling ahead of an exciting finale.

Williams led the scoring with 22 points as well as grabbing a dozen rebounds.

May-Thompson scored 16 points and Hughes 10.

Edwards, who got 15 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. said: “I try to play hard all game whether it’s on offence or defence and stats will follow that.

"We had a good first half but we have to play well for the whole game — if we do that we’ll be okay.”

Newby said: "To use a football analogy it was certainly a game of two halves. We dominated before the interval but fatigue hit us and we made a lot of errors in the third quarter.

“Bristol gave us a stern test but I’m really pleased with how the boys responded to the challenge. We withstood their comeback and made a big play to take the game at the end.”

London Lions visit the arena for Friday’s season-opening BBL Cup meeting (7.30pm).

“Lions are coming off a champagne year,” added Newby.

“They’ve retained a lot of their key players and will be the toughest of tests for us.

“But I’d rather take them on now and see where we stand at this time of the year.

“We left Kofi Josephs and Maarten Bouwknecht out on Monday as a precautionary measure but I’m confident they’ll both be ready to go on Friday.”