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Oaklands Wolves came on top when the club staged a six-team under-13 tournament at the college, on Saturday.
Teams from Abingdon, Enfield, Kingston-upon-Thames, North Herts and Maidstone joined the hosts for a day which saw each club play three 24-minute, stop-clock, games culminating in a thrilling final which saw Wolves defeat Enfield Scorpions 59-56.
The action started with two three-team groups, and Wolves survived a comeback from Maidstone Warriors to win 50-48. The hosts, with five U-12s in their line-up started well and built a double digit lead, only for the Kent side to fight back and it took a basket from captain Alex Ryan to send the hosts into the half-time break with a 27-23 lead, The second half was close throughout but eight points down the stretch from Jacob Edrupt sealed a 50-48 win.
The opener in Group B saw one of the few blowouts, with Scorpions being North Herts Knights 49-20 and they followed that up by edging out a Kingston Lions side that included three girls from their successful NBL team 44-37.
The second game in Group A saw Maidstone bounce back from their loss against Wolves to beat Abingdon Eagles 66-41, while Lions won a tight game against North Herts Knights 44-38 to secure a place in the third place play-off..
Wolves sealed their place in the final with a comfortable 65-21 win against Abingdon, allowing coach George Walker to give his younger players plenty of court time.
After a break to allow the teams who had played in both the second and third games, the fifth place play-off saw Eagles come back from a 14-point half-time deficit to beat Knights 41-33.
The third place game was also tight as Lions led 25-23 at half-time, before a strong second half from Warriors saw the Maidstone team win 49-42.
Fittingly the final proved to be the best game of the day as the side traded baskets throughout. Edrupt's triple cut Scorpions' half-time lead to 29-28, and Enfield led for most of the game before Ryan tied the game at 54 heading into the final two minutes.
Scorpions' Joshua Ammisah restored their lead before a big three from Edrupt was followed up by an assist from Ryan to allow Edrupt to seal the victory at the foul line,
Edrupt finished with a game-high 31 points, while Ammisah led Scorpions with 18. The medals were presented to the finalists by Wolves National League captain La'Quarne Sayles who started his career with Scorpions.
Abingdon coach Richard Amin obviously enjoyed the tournament: "Many thanks to Oaklands for organising and hosting the tournament today" he said. "Our team , coaches and parents were made to feel very welcome. They enjoyed the standard of play and sportsmanship showed from all the teams involved. We look forward to doing it all again anytime in the future."
Competition organiser Dave Ryan was delighted with how the competition went: "it was good to see so many kids enjoying the tournament. I think they all got plenty of basketball without completely wearing them out," he said. "It ran to time and for six of the games to be decided by eight points or less made for some exciting basketball. I'd like to thank the referees and table officials, it wouldn't have happened without them."
Wolves squad: 5 Miles Clark, 11 Alfred Shipley, 14 Lockie Gray, 15 Alex Cofone, 23 Ethan Fraser-Evans, 24 Ted Yu, 34 Danny Tsoutas, 35 Simas Milkonas, 41 Alex Ryan, 63 Jacob Edrupt, 70 Josh Butterworth