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A hard-fought 66-64 victory at London Lions sealed second spot in the NBL South I Division for Wolves under-16 girls.
Tor Freeman’s side were 50-43 down at the final break but a massive fourth period saw them complete their 11th victory of the campaign to give them a good chance of home court advantage in the play-offs.
Lions were led by a career high 27 points – including four triples - from Caitlin Ryan, Amye Swinney scored ten of her 11 points in the fourth period comeback while Mila Skipic--Piscitelli added ten.
The visitors trailed 17-13 at the first break but tied the game at 30 going into the locker room with a 17-13 quarter of their own. With the foul count mounting – Wolves were called for 26 in comparison to Lions’ nine – the game looked to be getting beyond the visitors as the home side took a seven point lead into the final break.
But a 16-6 start to the fourth quarter saw Wolves grab a 57-56 lead with 4.43 on the clock and they were ahead by six going into the final two minutes.
Ryan scored what proved to be the visitors’ final basket of the game, and the hosts moved within four points with 34.8 remaining and Lions inbounding the ball.
A drive to the basket saw Lions halve that lead before the visitors ran the clock down but failed to get a shot off with 4.6 seconds left, leaving Lions with the ball under their own basket. As time expired, the 26th foul was (inevitably) called sending a home guard to the line needing to sink both shots to force overtime. With tension rising, she missed the first before rimming the second as Wolves completed a three-game sweep against the London side.
With a weekend off, Wolves made the long trip to South III champions Bristol Flyers on Saturday, and went down 59-53 against a side who went 12-0 in their league, winning by an average of 45 points and reached the National Cup semi-final.
Wolves got off to a good start, leading 20-17 at the first break but were outscored 18-8 in the second period to trail 35-28 going into the locker room. That deficit grew to 47-38 at the final break and despite a strong fourth quarter from Wolves, Flyers hung on for the victory.
Stella Ekblad-Piscitelli and Swinney led Wolves with ten apiece with Skipic--Piscitelli adding eight as all nine visiting players finished with at least three points