NBA comes to Oaklands

The NBA (No Boys Allowed) came to Oaklands - at least on court one - on Sunday as three girls' under-13 development teams played a tournament at the home of the Wolves.

Around 40 girls played a mini-league series of games, with Norfolk Iceni coming out on tops and Wolves beating Ipswich in a thriller to seal second place.

It's a tournament that Wolves' Development Manager Dave Ryan is keen to repeat: "It was great to see so many girls playing, it's been hard work to get this to happen because so many clubs concentrate on boys, but it was definitely worthwhile" he said.

"We're looking for a sponsor to make it happen on a regular basis, it's a long way to travel for Ipswich and Norfolk to travel, so if we could help them by making it cheaper, it would definitely help.

"All the games were close and it was great to see the girls celebrating at the end."

Wolves faced Norfolk in the first game and a 12-2 first period put the visitors in charge, and despite an 8-2 final quarter, George Walker's team lost 20-16. A balanced scoring efforts saw Lois Levenston and Isobel Reed each score four points.

Iceni versus Ipswich went down to the final seconds as the Norwich side won 38-37, meaning that Wolves' game against Ipswich would decide who finished second.

Wolves certainly made it hard for themselves as they trailed 10-4 at the first break but they chipped away at the deficit to only trail 20-16 at half-time before taking a 26-24 lead into the final break. And the fourth period belonged to Oaklands as five different players got on the scoresheet as they outscored the visitors 10-6 to wrap up the 36-30 win.

Dominique Soma and Siena McLoughlin led the hosts with six points apiece