SWINDON Shock marked the start of their season with a nine-point victory over Woking Blackhawk Flyers in the first round of the National Cup.

Shock, who were on the road, claimed a 77-68 win thanks to MVP Spencer Wells, who put up a total of 29 points.

Head coach David Colclough said: “He (Wells) is a local Swindon product, he went off to play in the States, then in Italy, he played for Bristol for a while but injured his back severely.

“He’s just working his way back to shape, but wanted to do it with his home town team, to see if he could get back to full strength and he was amazing.

“The guys have grown up with him, but he moved on because he was an elite athlete, so to see him back was nice.”

Colclough’s team fell behind early on as they struggled to get going, but Wells was soon on hand to sink 10 of his 29 in the first period, giving them a seven-point lead going into the second quarter.

Their lead was then stretched to a further two points as they entered the third quarter and by the end of the third, Shock were looking comfortable with a healthy 15-point advantage as they led 60-45.

In the third, Mantas Kmita brought his match total to 17 points, thanks to two long-range efforts from the three-point line. Small forward Matt North was the next top scorer with 14 to his name.

The hosts tried to find their way back into contention, but Colclough used his bench to run down the clock.

“We fell down early, a lot of us hadn’t played together much so we’ve mixed our development side with our national one to make up numbers,” added Colclough.

“We hadn’t played as a team and then we went on a quick tear and when we went up they were never in 10 points of us.

“We really gelled well, people moved off each other we stuck together as a team and got a really good win.”

Shock will now face Cardiff in the second round on October 2, a day after they tip-off their regular season away at Exeter.