Home play-off spot clinched

Wolves' under-16 girls ground out a 32-23 victory at CoLA Southwark Pride to seal home court advantage in the first round of play-offs.

Tor Freeman’s side will now host Farnborough Phoenix in the last-16 of the post-season on Saturday (1pm) with a probable trip to #1 seed Richmond awaiting the winner.

The visitors led from the third minute of the game, but were only able to pull away in the fourth period, but certainly had some balanced scoring as put eight points on the board in each of the four periods.

Wolves rushed into an 8-1 lead but were pegged back to go into the first break with a two-point lead and extended that to 16-13 going into the locker room. The hosts got within a point midway through the third period, only to see Wolves take a six point lead into the final break and some good defensive work saw them close out the win with an 8-5 final frame.

To complete a symmetrical day, Caitlin Ryan, Ella Brown and Jacqueline Osei all finished with eight points apiece while Joanna Akpan and Lily Harkness each had four.

Meanwhile the U-16 boys warmed up for their play-off trip to Richmond with a narrow 75-72 loss at Conference East champions Milton Keynes.

After sharing 36 first period points, the second quarter proved to be the difference between the teams as the hosts took a 38-29 lead into the locker room. Wolves shaved a point off the deficit to trail 59-51 at the final break but their final came just too late as a 22-16 fourth period wasn’t quite enough.

Without leading scorer Simon Patasin, Wolves were led by Trey Carter’s 19 point and six rebounds while Ethan Downing continue his good season with 18 points and three assists. Daniel Kostadinov added eight points while Abraham Araba had seven boards to go with as many points.