Oaklands Wolves progressed to the SBL Trophy semi-final with a 106-35 victory at Cardiff Met Archers on Sunday afternoon.
Wolves never got out of the group stage of the equivalent WBBL competition during their eight seasons in the competition, but they will now host Essex Rebels on Saturday December 7 as they look to seal a place in the title game at the NIA in Birmingham.
Sam Ashby opened the scoring for Lee Ryan's side, and the visitors never trailed as they chalked up a massive victory to ensure top spot in Group B.
Wolves led 29-11 at the first break and were effectively in the semi-final as they took a 52-16 lead into the locker room at half-time. That lead grew to 59-28 at the final break before they wrapped things up with a 27-7 fourth period.
GB international Ashby hit four three-pointers on her way to a game-high 26 points, adding seven rebounds and five assists, while Lavinia Da Silva also had seven boards to go with her 17 points. Ella Fotu, Maria Albiero and Tayjanna Mcghee-Pleasant each finished with 11 points as all nine Wolves who saw court action scored at least six.
Ryan's team will look to make a winning start to their SLB regular season campaign when they host Durham Palatinates on Saturday evening, tip-off 7pm.. The north east side lost both of their Trophy games, at neighbours Newcastle and at home against big-spending Caledonia Gladiators.
Wolves men's home league opener ended in disappointment as they went down 88-79 in front of a big crowd at Oaklands.
Liam Jefferson's side were 11 down at the final break but got within four points in the closing stages before Blazers finished strongly to take the victory.
The early stages saw seven lead changes, but although Wolves only led for 75 seconds, they went into the first break trailing by just one at 23-22.
The second quarter proved decisive as Blazers opened a nine point lead by the midway stage ,and were 52-32 ahead going into half-time. A 16-6 finish to the third period saw the hosts get back into the game and although Dan Kostadinov hit a pair of big threes down the stretch, Paramatharj wrapped the Derby's win from the foul line.
La'Quarne Sayles led Wolves with 26 points and five rebounds and as many steals while captain Lore Adekye had 14 points and six assists. Academy nig man Gavin Mitchell pulled down an impressive 13 rebounds to go with his eight points.
The majority of the squad returned to action on Sunday as they dumped high-flying MK Breakers out of the U-18 National Cup with a 71-70 road victory.
Wolves led 20-11 at the first break but were pegged back to 31-28 at half-time and trailed 53-45 at the final break.
Wolves were down by three with 25 seconds on the clock but Aydan Moloney drained a triple to tie the score. The visitors forced a turnover and coach Jefferson called a timeout with 2.2 seconds on the clock.
Mitchell received the ball and was fouled in the act of shooting, and split the free-throws to send Wolves through and seal a trip to Canterbury Crusaders.
Mitchell led the scoring with 18 points, with Kostadinov finishing with 17, and bith Enzo da Cruz Fatuda and Moloney getting eight apiece,
It was a mixed weekend for the U-18 women as they destroyed Bracknell Cobras 123-20 in a league game on Saturday before being edged out of the National Cup 84-78 by last season's runners-up Ipswich the following day.
It took 15 minutes for Cobras to get on the scoresheet in Saturday's league game as Wolves opened with a 41-0 run. The hosts ran their bench for most of the game as they dominated throughout.
Imogen Baker came off the bench to outscore the visitors with 22 points, with Darcey Woodman adding 21, Amye Swinney 16 and Elise Bearsworth 14.
The following day saw a much tougher test for Wolves and they came up just short against visitors Ipswich despite 27 points from Woodman and 19 from Caitlin Ryan.
the Suffolk side scored the first seven points of the game but with captain Ryan scoring three triples Wolves cut the deficit to 24-22 at half-time before going into the locker room with a 46-45 lead.
There continued to be little between the sides in the third period as Ipswich took a 61-58 lead into the final break. Riana Redondo tied the score at 75 with 2.53 on the clock but it was the visitors who finished strongly despite Ryan going three-from-three at the foul line.
Comments