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Wolves girls continued their good seasons as both the under-14s and under-16s recorded narrow wins over the weekend, while the boys under-16s found league leaders London Lions too tough as the capital side continued their unbeaten league season.
Tor Freeman's under-16s are in touching distance of the play-offs following a thrilling 53-50 home win against London Lions and now need one win from their final five games (or Lions to suffer a defeat) to seal a place in the post-season.
Jemima Uzoka hit the winning basket with 18 seconds on the clock to give Wolves the win against a Lions side who trailed for most of the game but produced a fighting performance to keep alive their own hopes of being one of the four third place teams to qualify for the play-offs.
Uzoka led the scoring for Wolves with a 15 point, 12 rebound double-double, while Caitlin Ryan also finished with a double-double, adding ten steals to her 12 points, and Amye Swinney added eight points.
R
yan scored Wolves' first five points in a tight start to the game, but after the visitors had taken a two point lead heading into the couple of opening period minutes, Dalma Szgeiti capped a an 8-0 run to give Wolves a 15-10 lead at the first break.
Wolves struggled with Lions' press early in the second period but Uzoka started a late 10-0 run that put Wolves in charge and Stella Ekblad-Piscitellli's basket gave the hosts a 36-24 half-time lead.
The third period proved to be a difficult one offensively for Wolves as only Joanna Akpan and Uzoka troubled the scorer allowing Lions to cut the lead to40-35 at the final break and pair of baskets in the opening couple of minutes saw London pull within a point. Uzoka scored a couple of baskets to keep Wolves ahead. But even when Ryan split a pair at the foul line and then scored a floater to put the hosts up 51-48 with 102 seconds remaining it wasn't over as Green hit two quick baskets to make it a one point game before Uzoka's basket gave Wolves room to breath and some good defence saw Wolves hold on.
The under-14 girls also remain second in the table and in line for a play-off spot after Emerson Westerby's side won 49-37 at Norfolk Inceni Demons. The longg trip to Norwich proved to be a successful one for Wolves as they edged out the visitors in all four periods to record with seventh win in eight games,
The visitors led 8-5 at the first break and pulled away to take a 27-18 advantage into the half-time break. A tight, but higher scoring, third period saw them edge 41-31 ahead before the win was wrapped up with an 8-6 final quarter. Maliya Lawal led Wolves' scoring with 19 points, Darcy Mcreae adding 12 and there were also contributions from Paris Mitchell-Tyson (8), Lois Bush (6) and Darcey Judge (4).
Hopes of a weekend double against Lions were hit by the unavailability of the under-16 boys' leading scorer Simon Patasin, but Adam Pearce's side produced a fighting performance as they went down 76 42.
Wolves kept in touch in the first period, going into the break 18-12 down but the high-scoring visitors pulled away to lead 39-22 going into the locker room. A good third period saw the visitors outscored 23-20 to cut their lead to 59-45 but the hosts noticeably tired in the final frame as Lions hit 17 points to Wolves' seven to wrap up an 11th straight win.
Wolves are now seventh in the table with a 5-5 record. There are six games remaining and Pearce's team need to finish in a top five spot to guarantee a place in the play-offs.
Abraham Araba led his side with a 14 point, 11 rebound double-double, while Ethan Downing finished with 12 points, five rebounds and two assists. Will Andrews added eight points to his ten boards, while Trey Carter had four points and as many rebounds.