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Wolves U-16 girls remain top of NBL Premier South after a hard-fought 64-50 victory at Solent Kestrels, on Saturday.
Under stand-in coach Michael Ball, Wolves led for virtually all the game but it wasn't until the closing stages that they wrapped up their 11th league victory of the season.
Lily Harkness led the scoring with 16 points, adding five rebounds, while Amye Swinney had six boards to go with her 11 points. Caitlin Ryan missed a second straight triple-double by a single steal, finishing with ten point, 13 rebound, five assists and three blocks while Tiff Tyson had nine points
Despite the starting five each picking up a foul within the first five minutes of the game, Wolves led 16-12 at the first break before going into the locker room 29-18 ahead. that lead grew to 43-26 with four second half minutes gone but the hosts replied with a 12-1 run to make it four-point game with 7:23 on the clock. That proved to be as close as Kestrels got as Wolves used some good defence leading to easy scores and closed out the victory.
There was also success for the U-14 boys as they 50-38 at Brentwood Fire to keep their play-off hopes alive.
The damage was done in the first period as Wolves roared into a 15-4 lead before Fire narrowed the gap to 27-18 going into the half-time break before the sides shared 20 third period points and the visitors wrapped up the win with a 12-11 final frame.
Wolves U-16 boys found league leaders Baltic Stars too strong as they went down to a 93-64 home loss.
Adam Pearce's side were always chasing the game after the visitors opened a 31-16 first period lead, and the trailed 52-31 at half-time before Baltic outscored them 22-17 in the third period and 18-16 in the fourth. Milic Pavic led the hosts with 11 points, six rebounds and three assists while leading scorer Daniel Kostadinov add ten points, three boards and as many assists. Josh Brooks finished with eight points and four boards as all 11 Wolves got on the scoresheet.
Foul trouble haunted a depleted U-14 girls' side as they let a 17-point half-time lead slip against Norfolk Iceni to lose 72-66.
The hosts rushed into a 28-14 first period lead and extended it to 42-26 at half-time. But as the fouls started to mount, Iceni narrowed the gap to 54-40 at the final break, and with Sophie Walsh, Gauri Kohli and Daisy Golan all fouling out the visitors dominated the fourth period to take the victory.
Chloe Chan led the hosts' scoring with 26 points, while Lucy Conlan added 24 and Walsh six for a Wolves team who will look to improve their free-throw shooting after missing 21 of their 29 foul shots.