WORCESTER Wolves suffered an agonising 99-96 overtime defeat at Glasgow Rocks in the British Basketball League.

Paul James' side lost only their second league match of the season.

Rocks were 96-95 ahead with five seconds left when a long-range attempt from Wolves captain Alex Owumi went astray.

Remi Dibo snatched the rebound but was fouled by former Worcester favourite Tommy Freeman before he could get a shot off.

Dibo made one of the two free throws to tie the game 96-96.

Glasgow coach Sterling Davis hastily requested a time-out with three seconds remaining.

The ball was played to point guard Jajuan Smith, who banked in an unlikely shot from several feet behind the free-throw line despite defenders’ hands in his face.

Throughout the evening, neither side was able to pull decisively clear of the other.

Freeman opened his scoring account with a three-pointer to make it 15-15 after six minutes.

At the close of the first quarter, Dibo rebounded a miss from Chavis Holmes and floated home a triple for a 24-20 Worcester advantage.

Wolves then led 36-29 but a late Glasgow flurry tied matters at 41-41 entering the break.

There was again a seven-point away advantage at 55-48 by midway through the third quarter.

But a Smith long-range success as the fourth quarter began levelled matters at 65-65.

Back and forth went the lead until 16 seconds of regulation time remained.

At 81-81, a time-out was called by Worcester coach James but Holmes could not convert from the play that was drawn up, sending the match into five minutes of overtime.

There was a burst of three-pointers as the sides exchanged the lead.

Freeman, Dibo and Smith all struck to move the scoreboard to 94-93 to Rocks.

The excitement continued until the dying moments when Smith showed the mettle that once earned him a trial at NBA side Dallas Mavericks.

James said: “It was a tough loss. The shot from Smith was a ‘Hail Mary’. But it should never have come down to that last shot.

"We held the lead for more than three-quarters of the match and there were several points when we should have killed them off but then allowed them to revive.

"I’m pleased with the effort from the guys but obviously disappointed with the result.”

Robert Thurman and Holmes led the Worcester scoring with 26 and 24 points respectively.

Freeman tallied 18 points against his former employers.