Basketball: West Lothian Wolves devour both Dundee teams

Oct 1 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

WL Wolves devour both Dundee teams

THE WEST Lothian Wolves began their National League campaigns with a double triumph over rivals Dundee this weekend.

It was a tremendous result for the Wolves and especially the under-16s who were making their National League bow.

Their league debut was against potentially tricky opponents in the Dundee Sharks but they showed they are more than up to scratch at this level by winning 66-42.

The under-16s, known as the cadets, came out really aggressively on both the defensive and offensive ends of the floor and Ross Koehler opened the scoring with a couple of three pointers.

The early baskets got the home team rolling and the crowd exited while they also kept the Sharks at bay with their stifling defence which allowed them to maintain possession of the ball. This tactic led to many fast breaks and resulted in easy baskets.

When the Wolves took the ball up the floor slowly they ran their half-court sets to perfection, again resulting in easy baskets and wide-open shots.

The Wolves had three players in double figures with Ewan Prentice scoring 25 points, Matthew Kean scoring 14 and Scott Thompson netting 11 points.

Scott led in rebounding with 12, while Matthew Kean recovered nine in total.

The under-18s (juniors) were also in action against the Sharks and they ensured it was long and miserable journey home to Dundee for the travelling squads by racking up another win, this time by 46-28.

In this match the Wolves took a commanding lead in the first quarter of the game and looked as if they were going to walk away with a victory over a very weak Dundee Sharks team.

However, the Wolves allowed Dundee to get back into the game in the third quarter, which meant that the Wolves had to work hard to earn an 18-point lead. This was a very low-scoring game, however the Wolves superior defence prevailed in the end. High scorers for the Wolves were Liam Marshall with 14 points and Fraser Morrison with 11. The team were happy with their first victory of the new season and will want to improve further in order to get more victories.