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The chance to play on the Show Court at Oaklands was clearly appreciated by Wolves' two under-16 teams as they collected victories on a big day of basketball on Saturday.
The girls were first in action and overcame a slow start to beat Lewisham Thunder 61-31 while the boys also finished strongly to beat London Greenhouse Pioneers 75-50.
Tor Freeman's girls' team looked to be in control early in the day's midday game as a Joanna Akpan triple helped them rush into a 9-3 lead after three minutes, but they made hard work of things after that as the visitors cut the lea to 17-14 at the first break. The second period saw the game continue to be scrappy with Thunder closing the gap to two points before Dalma Szigeti doubled the advantage and Caitlin Ryan hit a triple on the buzzer to give Wolves a 26-19 lead going into the locker room.
Lewisham scored the first basket of the second half but after that it was all Wolves as they 19-2 to effectively wrap things up at 45-23 going into the final break and a 16-8 fourth period sealed the win
Ryan led a balanced Wolves offence with 13 points and five rebound while Jemima Uzoka had a ten point, ten rebound double-double. Mlia Skipik-Piscitelli also finished with ten points, adding three boards and as many boards, while Szigeti had eight points and four rebounds. Akpan finished with seven and nine rebounds as all ten Wolves got on the scoresheet.
After watching the WBBL side lose to Cardiff, the boys made a good start to lead 24-12 against Pioneers but a disappointing second stanza saw their lead cut back to 33-26 going into the half-time break. The third period has often been the Achilles heal for Adam Pearce's side this season but that wasn't the case this week as Pioneers were blown away with a 22-9 quarter to give Wolves a 55-35 lead and they wrapped things up with a 20-15 fourth period to keep their play-off hopes alive.
Daniel Kostadinov and Simon Patasin led the way with 22 points and four rebounds each, with Patasin adding eight assists and Kostadinov four. Abaraham Araba finished with seven points and eight boards, with Josh Brooks adding six points and four rebounds.