HEAD coach Paul James admits Worcester Wolves will “struggle” in the British Basketball League if his players do not “give their all” in every match.

The Wolves boss was left “really disappointed” with his side’s showing in their 81-74 defeat to lowly Bristol Flyers at the University of Worcester Arena before Christmas.

Prior to that loss, Wolves appeared to have got their campaign back on track with a 91-77 win at Leeds Force and an impressive 88-56 victory over Bristol.

However, James said their performance against Flyers a week later showed his troops needed to “all show up” to help their side finish victorious.

“It was a really disappointing result,” said James whose side sit in seventh place in the BBL table with five wins and nine defeats.

“I thought we had been playing pretty well up until that point and had just started to get some things going.

“Defensively we had been solid in the last few games and offensively we were looking good.

“But there are no walkover games in this league.

“Every team is very competitive so if you don’t do the little things well it can become a lottery at the end.

“I didn’t think we took our opportunities to build a lead when we had a chance and allowed them to stay in the game.

“Down the stretch they executed better than we did and we lost a game which was really there for the taking.”

Apart from Trevor Setty (24), Maurice Walker (15) and Marek Klaasen (14), no other Wolves player reached double figures against Bristol with Jermel Kennedy failing to register a single point in 26 minutes on the court.

“If we don’t all show up and play our best game then we are not as good a team as we can possibly be,” James continued.

“We need everyone to give their all every single time. If that doesn’t happen we are going to struggle. It was a tough game.

“I thought we prepared exceptionally but a couple of things didn’t go our way during the game which we didn’t handle very well and before we knew it we were in for a bit of a scrap.

“The outcome was not what we wanted.”

Due to the Christmas break, Wolves have had two weeks to prepare for their home clash with sixth-placed Plymouth Raiders tomorrow (7.30pm).

And James said it had given them a chance to “work on a few things”.

“We have been back out on the court, talking through some stuff and reaffirming what we want as coaches and what we need the players to be giving,” added James, whose side lost 94-81 at Plymouth last month.

“We have been looking at films of Plymouth to see what they did well the last time we played them and what we did well and make sure we prepare as best we can and put on a performance tomorrow.”