Worcester Wolves 41-58 Loughborough Lightning

Saturday 22nd January 2022

By Amir Farhat

Worcester Wolves and Loughborough Lightning kicked off the first-ever Wheelchair Basketball Women’s Premier League match in the University Arena on Saturday.

Right from the tip-off, we saw two highly motivated teams battling hard for the first win of the season. Loughborough took the upper hand in the first quarter and led the way with a score of 13-6.

In the second quarter, Worcester played really well and balanced in the 7-point difference until the Lightning players turned up their engines at the four-minute mark. The visitors doubled the lead in a span of a minute with Siobhan Fitzpatrick netting two back-to-back field goals followed by a turnover which Loughborough capitalised on.

At the half-mark of the game, Lightning had a 34-19 lead. They had really good numbers in field goals (48%), two points (50%) and free throws (50%).

Wolves began the third quarter trying to eat out the 15-point gap. They came as close as 10 points and played the best quarter of their game but at the same time, Loughborough was able to keep on scoring. Lightning extended their lead taking the quarter 16-15.

In a low scoring, last quarter Loughborough managed to hold off the charging Wolves and took the match and the first-ever BWB game by a score of 58-41. 

Lighting finished with impressive numbers on field goals, 26/60 (43%), two points, 26/59 (44%) and free throws, 6/8 (75%). Wolves’ respective numbers were, 19/60 (31%), 19/60 (31%) and 3/6 (50%). Both teams had a similar number of attempts made but Loughborough was just a little bit better on capitalising today.

Lightning also had the edge in points from turnovers (10-6), steals (5-3) and second-chance points (6-5).

Wolves’ leading scorer (18) Jade Loughlin said that it was a very tough opening game for her team knowing that the Lighting are the favorites.

“We came to the game with ideas of how we want to play, focused on that and I am very proud of the girls because we executed what we wanted to.”

Next, the Wolves team travels to Cardiff to face the Met Archers on February 12th.