The (cheap) weekend preview

Wolves men look to end on a high - and it's only a quid!

It's kids (and adults, in fact absolutely anyone) for a pound as Wolves men wrap up their National League Division Two South season with a home game against Westminster Warriors on Saturday.

Tip-off is 6pm as Faith Karahan's young team look for a repeat of last week's buzzer-beating victory against Ipswich, and they will face a Warriors side who have won four of their last six games - the defeats coming against the league's top two sides, MK Breakers and Solent - to end any relegation fears and move up to sixth in the table with an 8-11 record.

One of those eight wins for a Warriors side containing several players from Wolves predecessors Leopards came at Moberley Leisure Centre as they Oaklands 83-55.

After a tough season the Wolves are looking for a big crowd in what will be a final appearance at Oaklands for several players. SO BRING THE NOISE!

Wolves II will also aim to end a tough season when they complete their D3 East fixtures with a trip to Northampton Mavericks on Saturday afternoon. It will be a revenge mission forthe young Oaklands side as they lost a thriller 0-85 when the teams met at Oaklands in December despite 25 points from Dan Kostadinov.

Wolves WBBL side have a weekend off as the competition stages its All-Star game but the academy team will still be bouncing after Wednesday's WEABL quarter-final victory in Manchester as they travel to Bracknell Cobras.

Caitlin Ryan dropped 17 points and Stella Ekblad-Piscitelli added 11 when Wolves won a bail-biter 56-54 earlier in the season, so Claire Abbott's side will be looking for a double against a team sitting eighth in the league with a 7-12 record. Claire Abbott's team need to win both of their remaining game and hope that Cardiff City win at Thames Valley to reach the Division Two play-offs.

There is also plenty of junior action for the Wolves juniors as the JNBL season reaches its penultimate weekend. Wolves U-12 boys get things going at Oaklands when they host county rivals North Herts Knight at 11am. Michael Ball's side are looking for a clean sweep against all opposition not called Milton Keynes Breakers I, and have already wrapped up second spot in Region IV, so they'll be aiming for a repeat of their 55-26 victory when they travelled to Pendelton Sports Centre in late November.

The 1pm tip-off sees Wolves U-16s face a massive task against London Stars who are still chasing the runners-up spot having won 15 of their 19 games, including a 95-30 victory against George Walker's team when they met on east London.

There's also U-16 action at 3pm as the girls host London Thunder in the first of successive games against the Millwall-based team. Jorjah Smith's team will aim to build on last week's win at Reading which improved their record to 2-16 while the capital side have a three wins from 19 games.

Wolves U-14 boys wrap up their league season with a trip to Barking & Dagenham Thunder where they will aim for a double against the Dagenham based hosts having won a thriller 63-61 earlier in the season. Ibrahim Garbia's team are already safely in the play-offs with a 15-6 record while the hosts are destined to finish sixth and miss out on the post-season having won 10 of their 21 games

Sunday's action sees the U-14 girls looking for revenge when they host a Sussex Storm side who beat them 96-25 three weeks ago. With coach Allison Day involved in the WBBL All-Star game, La'Quarne Sayles will take the team as they look to upset a fourth placed Storm side who are fourth in the South Premier table.

Wolves U-13 boys will be aiming for a double as they host Cambourne Falcons U-14 at 4pm, having won 74-45 in Cambridgeshire earlier in the season. George Walker's teams are currently seventh in the U-14 East Conference with a 7-11 record while Falcons are tenth with three wins from 19 games.

After seeing the game postponed due to a lack of referees last week, Wolves U-16s will complete a long weekend with a trip to Brentwood Fire on Sunday afternoon looking for a win which would realistically end any fears of participating in the relegation play-offs. Wolves face a side who are one place ahead of them in eighth spot. The meeting at Oaklands saw a lopsided 92-43 victory for the visitors but the Essex side go into the game with only two wins in their last nine games.

Last, but certainly not least, Wolves Vets have the first of two successive home games when they face North Herts II in the Herts League Division Two on Sunday evening, tip-off 6.30pm.

The team that grew out of a Saturday morning scrimmage for dads who wanted to shake off the previous night's excesses sit eighth in the table with a 4-8 record having won their last two games. It will be Knights second trip to Oaklands inside a week having lost 78-59 against Wolves Academy on Wednesday.

U-16 girls down Rockets - again

Wolves U-16 girls produced a fantastic fourth period comeback to record a 52-49 victory at Reading Rockets, on Saturday.

Under stand-in coach George Walker, Wolves outscored the hosts 22-8 in the final frame to record their second win of the season against the Rockets.

The visitors led 14-11 at the first break before Rockets fought back to lead 28-26 at half-time, and the game looked over as they took a 41-30 advantage into the final quarter. But eight Jane Yu points and six from Elise Beardsworth in the last quarter sparked the visitors as they scored 22 of the first 26 points in the period to collect the win.

Eunice Towong finished with 16 points, with Yu adding 11 and Beardsworth eight

There was also success for the U-12 girls as they wrapped up their debut NBL season with a 51-43 home victory against Solent Kestrels.

Against a side who had comfortably beaten they on the south coast when they met earlier in the season, Wolves trailed 12-9 at the first break and were 25-23 down at half-time. But they scored the first 13 points of the third period to take control, going into the final break 40-29 ahead and never looked in trouble as they closed out their sixth win of the campaign.

Rose Marsh led the way with 19 points while Francesca Scott had eight points and 12 steals.

The U-14 girls couldn't complete a hat-trick as a side depleted by U-16 call-ups went down 85-35 at Solent. Wolves trailed 22-11 at the first break and it was all over by half-time as the hosts led 41-14.

The U-14 boys continued their excellent season with an 86-59 victory against London Thunder as they continue their push for a high seeding in the NBL play-offs.

They never looked back after a 26-15 first period, extending the lead to 48-25 before outscoring the visitors 16-14 in the third period and 22-16 in the fourth.

Liam Schertel led the way with 25 points and five rebounds while Tituoan Vimeux had three triples in his 16 points, also adding five boards. Sam McRee finished with 12 points and eight boards while Albert Dye had nine points four rebounds.

Wolves U-12 boys also chalked up another win as they defeated Cambridge Cats 75-50. Michael Ball's side shaded the first period 16-12 before blowing the game open in the second quarter to go into the half-time break 44-23 ahead. Manuel Gracia-Peris had another big game with 28 points, Alex Cofone adding 16 and Tristan Ball 11 as Wolves won each of the final two periods by two points.

The boys' development teams in the conferences again found older opposition too tough as the U-15s went down 99-55 at home against West Herts U-16 III while the U-13s were beaten 67-34 by high-flying Bedford Thunder U-14.

Warriors III - who are having a much better season than their club's second team and have beaten them in both league encounters - never looked back after rushing into a 30-15 first period lead. La'Quarne Sayles' team stopped the rot in the second period to trail 50-34 at half-time before the visitors wrapped up the win with a 21-13 third period and a 28-8 fourth.

Seth Coetzee had a big double-double with 17 points and 15 rebounds, while Nestor Sharma added 11 points, Ethan Chung had four rebounds to go with his seven points and Billy Harmer had six points, as many assists, four rebounds and three steals.

The U-13s saw Bedford do most of the damage in the third period as they outscored them 24-7. Wolves had held Thunder to 17-14 at the first break and 33-25 at half-time, and the hosts wrapped up the win with a 10-2 final frame.

Rocky Starr led George Walker's team with ten points, while Ethan Fraser-Evans and Harry Regan added six apiece.

Spencer drains buzzer-beater

Spencer Matthews drained a buzzer-beating three-pointer as Oaklands Wolves men won a thriller 91-88 against Ipswich, on Saturday.

Wolves had forced a stop at the other end to give them the ball with under two seconds on the clock, and Mathews received the ball at half court from Bill Irvine before draining a massive triple from well outside the three-point line to seal the victory.

Relive the moment here!

The young Wolves have had a tough season in NBL Division Two South, but in their penultimate game of the campaign they produced probably their best basketball of the year, pouring in 33 first period points and recovering from a poor third period to spark wild celebrations at the end.

Captain La'Quarne Sayles- at 21, Wolves' senior player - followed his 43 points in November's loss in Ipswich with a 33-point, five assist, four rebound display, while Irvine had four assists and three boards to go with his 19 points. Tega Adbede had 12 points, three assists and as many rebounds while Matthews had four assists along with ten points.

Irvine had three triples in the first period as Wolves' up-tempo game caused the visitors problems and they took a 33-22 lead as Sayles managed three three-point plays in the second quarter as the lead grew to 56-43 at half time.

The third period proved to be a painful one for the home fans as Wolves were outscored 29-17, and although Oliver Rudzinski hit a triple to put them up by four in the closing stages, Arron Williams - who played at Oaklands during the final months of Leopards' tenure - hit a jump shot to cut the hosts' lead to 73-72 at the final break. 

The fourth period was nip and tuck throughout and Lee Hodges, another former Leopard, turned the ball over with 26 seconds on the clock as Wolves coach Faith Karahan called a timeout. Sayles also turned the ball over but Fleming missed with a jump shot to set up the grandstand finish.

Wolves will look to wrap up the season in similar style when they host Westminster Warriors, tip-off 6pm, with tickets priced just £1 each from http://www.oaklandsbasketball.com.

It was also a tight game at Nottingham, but Wolves' women couldn't make it a winning day as they were edged out 85-80 by the hometown Wildcats.

After leading 25-18 at the first break a Wolves team still missing centre Amy West never really found their rhythm again as the visitors cut that advantage to one point at half-time before taking a 61-57 lead into the final quarter.

The game looked over with 2:13 on the clock as Wildcats opened an 82-70 advantage, but triples from Ri Thomson and Jorjah Smith made it a four point game before Shaq Wade's lay-up halved that deficit with 30 seconds on the clock. But that was as close as Lee Ryan's team came as they were forced to foul to stop the clock, and Nottingham wrapped up the win at the foul line.

Wade led Wolves with 20 points, four rebounds and three assists while Thompson added five assists and as many rebounds to her 18 points. In West's absence, Fabienne Zere finished with ten points.

Wolves academy side own the Hertfordshire bragging rights in WNBL Division Two South as as they completed a double over Stevenage Royals with a 61-29 victory, having also beaten Hemel Storm home and away

Claire Abbott's team produced a strong second half to limit the visitors to just five points. Abbott gave all of her roster court time in the first half as they prepare for their academy League play-off at Manchester on Wednesday before they took control after the break and half Royals scoreless for more than 11 minutes at one stage.

Wolves led 19-9 at the first break but were pegged back to 28-24 at half-time. They took a double-digit lead into the final break after an 11-3 third period before wrapping things up with a 22-2 final frame.

Caitlin Ryan again led the scoring with 11 points, adding eight steals, seven assists and four rebounds, while Amye Swinney contributed ten points and four boards. Ella Brown chipped in with eight points while Cleo Lewis-Gayle marked her return from injury with eight rebounds and six points.

Wolves D3 men also produced an encouraging performance before losing 104-87 against UAE Panthers.

Captain Dan Kostadinov led by example with six triples on his way to a 24 point, six rebound game, while Irvine completed a good weekend with 30 points and four assists. Daren Rohi also had 24 points and pulled down a massive 15 rebounds for an impressive double-double.

After a slow start Wolves recovered to trail only 22-19 at the first break but the visitors pulled away to lead 53-43 at half-time and wrapped up the win with 21-20 third quarter and a 30-24 final frame.