Team Solent Kestrels 55–51 Worcester Wolves

Saturday December 3rd 2022

By Ben Spittle

After last weeks victory, the Wolves were looking to continue their form into this weeks fixture however it didn’t end that way. One of the closest games this season with both teams having parts of the match in control ended up with the Kestrels taking the victory by 4 points.

The Wolves started the game well when they got the first points of the game only a few seconds in. As the quarter went on it was clear that the points scoring wasn’t going to be at its highest with both teams’ defensive tactics being very strong and hard to break down.  The quarter ended with the Wolves in the lead by a small margin (11-14).

The second quarter once again started with the Wolves opening the scoring and opening the lead, they worked very hard for in the first quarter.  This quarter was very similar to the first quarter with both teams’ tactics cancelling each other out leading to very little points being scored.  As the quarter came to an end, we saw the Kestrels for the first time this game as they take the lead by 5 points heading into the halfway stage of this close encounter (30-25).

As the quarter started, we saw a more attacking minded Wolves team which allowed the Kestrels capitalize on this as they opened their lead to 9 points early on in the quarter. As the quarter grew on the 9 points lead the Kestrels had remained intact for most of the quarter with both teams scoring right after each other and it took till the final minutes of the quarter for the Wolves to close the lead down to 8 points heading into the final 10 minutes of the game (40-32).

The Wolves started the final quarter absolutely flying taking the lead (41-40) 2 minutes into the 4^th quarter. After a timeout from the Kestrels the game started to settle down again with both teams very against going all out to try and win the game given how equally matched both teams have been throughout the game. However, in the final 5 minutes the kestrels managed to grab a massively important 13 points in comparison to the Wolves getting a total of 6 points which saw the Kestrels take victory by 4 points in a game that could have gone either way.

Sandra Hewakowska was top scorer for the Wolves today scoring an impressive 19 points with Charlotte Finn just behind her scoring a total 11 points.  Next Saturday sees the Wolves back at home against Bristol Flyers with tip off at 7pm.