Worcester Wolves End Inaugural BWB Women’s Premier League Season With A Win And Third Place

Weekend of 14th/15th May 2022

By Jamie Tranter & Tom Bennett

The University of East London Sports Dock played host to the British Wheelchair Basketball National Championship Finals.

On Saturday, semi-final 2 saw Loughborough Lightning take commanding victory over Worcester Wolves.

The Worcester Wolves started the better of the two sides with four of the five starters scoring within the first 5 minutes. However, the Lightning’s Jude Hamer and Robyn Love didn’t take long to find their rhythm and soon struck the Wolves, scoring 3 baskets each in the final 3 minutes to help slowly increase their advantage. Loughborough ended the first quarter with a 4-point lead.

The second quarter is one to forget for the Worcester Wolves; a quarter of 15 missed attempts and 3 turnovers saw them score a just two points picked up by Sarah Hope.

Siobhan Fitzpatrick made a big impact off the bench for Loughborough, shooting 87% from the field with 14 points, 6 of them coming in this quarter.

Loughborough Lightning had a healthy lead at the break. The score was Loughborough Lightning 39 – 20 Worcester Wolves.

The Wolves needed an almighty performance in this second half to come back into contention, however the third quarter was more one way traffic. Loughborough had 5 different scorers in the third quarter, with Love scoring the only 3-point effort of the game. Worcester again were forced into errors and turnovers as a result of Loughborough’s heavy press on defence. The lead at the end of the quarter had grown to 32.

With one foot already in the final, Loughborough didn’t get complacent and saw the game out in impressive fashion. Love and Fitzpatrick continued to pick up points, and were joined on the scoreboard by Niamh Horan, Elly Gilvarry, and Holly Lounds. The final quarter saw the Lightning continue to stretch the gap and ended the game with their widest lead of the game of 40 points.

Wolve Captain Sarah Hope top scored for the Wolves with 12 points and followed by Ellan Fraser with 8 and 6 points for each Cat Yearron, Jade Loughlin and Jess Dowdeswell.

The final score was 82-42 in favour of Loughborough.

Sunday saw the Wolves take on Cardiff Met Archer in the 3^rd /4^th place Play Off Match, a game Head Coach Simon Fisher knew the team could win.

Both teams started strongly, and the first quarter was a very competitive affair with Archers taking a 2-point lead at the end of the first with Captain Jade Atkin showing her dominance around the basket.

The second quarter saw the Wolves take control with a flurry of baskets from great assists and taking advantage of Cardiff’s turnovers. Captain Sarah Hope led from the front showing great shooting form which inspired her teammates to follow.

At the half the Wolves now led the game by 2 points, but this was just the start.

Full of confidence and belief the Wolves continued to show what they are capable off with baskets falling from all directions. 16 third quarter points, which included some great finishes from Jess Dowdeswell, Ellan Fraser and Fran Ray. The Wolves led 24-30 going into the final quarter.

The final ten minutes of the game saw Archers push for a come back but the Wolves were not going to let this one get away. With a composed ad professional output, the Wolves scored another 14 points and with a great defensive display limited Archers scoring to secure the win 32-44 and take third place in the Championship.

The game saw double doubles for Sarah Hope (12pts/15reb) and Jade Loughlin (12pts/10reb) with 8pts from Jess Dowdeswell who showed great form over the weekend. Fran Ray also had a great game with an efficiency rating of 19, contributing on all stat lines. The team saw another solid performance from Ellan Fraser and another 40-minute game from Cat Yearron.

The Wolves will now enter the summer break full of confidence as preparations begin for the 2023 campaign.