Oaklands Wolves became the latest team to fail to stop the London Lions juggernaut as they went down 95-64 in the Women’s British Basketball League.
The capital side had lost just once since the end of the 2020-2021 regular season and had lifted the last nine pieces of silverware available.
But the St Albans-based Wolves traded blows with them in the first half and only trailed 46-34 at half-time.
A Caterrion Thompson triple helped keep the deficit at 11 with four second half minutes gone, but Lions’ strength in depth proved to be the difference down the stretch as they continued their winning run.
In front of a big crowd, Thompson continued her high-scoring season by leading Lee Ryan’s team with 19 points and five rebounds, while Allison Day also had five boards to go with her 12 points.
Wolves travel to Manchester Giants on Sunday where they will look to keep up their play-off push in a game between the two sides who share seventh spot in the WBBL.
Wolves’ young second team also faced a league-leading team, and without coach Claire Abbott and second leading scorer Daisy Porter they lost 53-45 at Cobham Cobras.
The visitors trailed 21-5 at the first break, but fought back to make it a six-point game heading into the final break.
The game was tied at 43 with four minutes remaining but with leading scorer Caitlin Ryan fouling out the offence dried up, and Cobras wrapped up their seventh straight WNBL Division Two South victory.
After scoring the game winner in Wednesday’s Elite Academy league win against Barking Abbey, Ryan again led Wolves’ scoring with 16 points while Amye Swinney, Joanna Akpan and Elle Brown hit six apiece.
In a weekend where Wolves faced three games against league leaders, the men’s Division Two side’s difficult season continued with a 112-49 loss against Solent Kestrels.
Against a club who won four straight Division One titles and five other trophies during that period before somehow negotiating a drop to the second tier, Wolves took early leads through Spencer Matthews and Talles Zacharias but were then outscored 62-11 in the rest of the half as Kestrels wrapped things up before the interval.
Zacharias and Jack Davies each scored ten points, with Matthews adding eight.
Wolves will look for their first victory of the season on Saturday when they host Cobham Scorchers at 6pm. Tickets are available on the door or through www.oaklandsbasketball.com.
There was also disappointment for Wolves II as they went down 104-69 at Cambridge Cats on Saturday evening, never recovering from a 34-17 first period deficit.
Tristan Ball and Alex Ryan led the way as Wolves’ youngest boys Junior National League teams recorded contrasting victories on Saturday.
Ball sunk the game winner as the U12s won a thriller 64-63 against Bedford Thunder, while Ryan had the holy grail of a triple double as the U13s hammered hosts Braintree Blue Devils U-14s 104-19.
Led by Manuel Gracia-Peris’ 28 points, the U12s led for most of the game but in a frantic finish Ball scored eight of their final ten points to take his tally to 16 and wrap up the victory.
Meanwhile in Braintree, Ryan finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds, 14 assists and four steals as Wolves crushed their older opponents.
The visitors never looked back after a 26-5 first period, and they were particularly dominant in the third quarter as they outscored the hosts 32-2.
Harry Regan led George Walker’s side with a massive 37 points, 15 rebounds and six steals.
There was also success for Wolves’ U14 boys as they strengthened their play-off hopes with a 73-47 win at London Thunder.
Liam Steutal hit a triple as a 17-5 first period put Ibrahim Gariba’s team in charge but it was the third quarter where the hosts were outscored 28-11 which wrapped up the win.
Zac Butterworth (16) and Titouan Vimeux (15) led the scoring for Wolves.
In contrast, it was a day to forget for Wolves’ under-16 sides as the boys went down 98-45 at West Herts Warriors and the girls lost 98-37 at CoLA Southwark Pride.
Finally, a mixed U12/U14 squad split their East U14 Girls Development games in Norwich, on Sunday. Hosts Norfolk Iceni were beaten 46-18 in the first game before they lost a thriller 24-22 against Braintree.
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