Basketball: West Lothian Wolves hungry for action

Nov 5 2009 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

IT was a very busy week for the West Lothian Wolves with plenty of action available for all sections of the club.

The women won their first game of the season in a tightly fought battle with the Edinburgh Kool Kats, winning by a point with the final basket being scored by Leigh Lynch, the senior women’s youngest player.

The under-16 cadet squad had two games in the last week. On Thursday the boys faced the Cumbernauld Chiefs, a team that they recently beat soundly by 70 points in league action.

This however was the first round of the Scottish Cup, and with the stakes a bit higher the visiting team came out playing a lot more aggressively.

Indeed the Wolves were in control throughout the game, however it took them a bit more of an effort to pull away and eventually win by 32 points.

The young Wolves at times played down to the standard of their opponents, and made life difficult by turning the ball over time and again and by not finishing easy plays with a score. The final score was never in doubt, with the Wolves going into the second round of the competition.

On Saturday afternoon the cadets were on the floor again, this time facing off against the Dunfermline Reign away in Fife.

This would present a much bigger challenge as the Reign had only been narrowly beaten by the Wolves in a pre-season friendly and the home team also outsized the Wolves at almost every position.

This did not seem to matter to the young Wolves who got back their trademark tough defence and great team offence. The Wolves moved the ball very well in the opening period leading to many open jump shots and drives to the basket.

The result was lots of scored baskets and by attacking the hoop the Wolves used the home team’s aggressive defence against them, making the Reign foul them constantly.

The Wolves finished the first quarter up by three points. However the young West Lothian side did not take their foot off the gas and continued to be aggressive. Ross Kohler and Duncan MacPherson were on form continuously finding the bottom of the basket and helping push the lead upwards.

The Wolves went into the break with a 44-28 lead. The Reign were frustrated and never really looked able to fight back, making a small run at the start of the fourth quarter. However the Wolves weathered this run and won the game 83-66.

Wolves coach Marc Dickson ran the bench, allowing his more inexperienced players to see the floor, which will help with their overall development and will allow them to continue to improve.

The high scorers of the day were Kohler with 27 points, MacPherson with 22 points and Matthew Kean with 16 points and eight rebounds.

The under-16s big man Andrew Bleakley continues to improve, with a couple of nice moves to the basket finishing with four points.

The Wolves under-18 junior men were then up against the Reign juniors in what was to be an amazing, closely fought contest.

The Wolves looked the better team in the first quarter with aggressive defence and some positive moves of offence.

Ross Patterson again made the difference on defence, stopping drives to the basket and securing rebounds off missed shots.

Wolves centre Liam Marshall was aggressive early and with the ball going through him each time down the floor he made good moves to the basket and found open men for their own shots.

Wolves went into the break ahead by seven points. Reign fought back and started to take control of the game, going in the lead midway through the second period but never leading by more than seven points.

Wolves made some unforced errors which allowed Reign to get back into the game – a trend that would sum up this game.

Wolves did fight back but Reign went into the half-time break with a narrow lead of 26-27.

The second-half remained a tight affair with the teams staying close to each other and neither really able to take any advantage.

The three cadet men, who also play for the junior side, saw some significant minutes and as always made an impact on the game.

Kohler controlled the game well from the point guard position, Kean was excellent as always on defence and MacPherson continued to shoot the ball well.

As the game went into the fourth quarter the atmosphere in the court was building. The away supporters were as loud and boisterous as the home support as both teams gave the crowd something to cheer and shout about.

Big Marshall continued to have his way inside, getting offensive rebounds and converting these into scored baskets. However the Wolves were down by six points with two-and-a-half minutes left. Marshall went for a rebound and received an elbow to the eye, causing it to bleed.

Coach Andrew Smyth had to replace him, putting on reserve Ross Imrie, who did a great job in the time Liam was off the floor.

The Wolves scratched away at the lead and were only down by two points with seven seconds to go.

Marshall was able to go back onto the court after being fixed up by mum Debbie, who is a trainee nurse.

Wolves got the ball to guard Daniel Brazil who was fouled on the play and received two free-throws.

Daniel stepped up and scored both to send the game into overtime.

He subsequently said that hitting those two shots, with the crowd booing and trying to put him off, was the best moment of his life, and it showed as he screamed and pumped his fists all the way up the floor.

However, this was not to the be the Wolves game.

Reign showed more composure in the extra period and came out winners, with a final score of 60-53. This will be a good learning opportunity for the Wolves juniors.

The final game of the weekend was between the Wolves Senior Men and the Reign Senior Men in a Lothian League match played on Sunday.

Wolves had a tough task on their hands, not only facing one of the top teams in the league, but having to do it without Richard Henderson.

Wolves started out finding it tough to find any baskets, and allowed Reign to push ahead and get an early lead.

Reign’s physical defence initially put Wolves off, however they persevered and continue to pound the ball inside to Owen, Cook, Marc Dickson and Andrew Smyth, who started to convert baskets and get to the foul line.

Wolves were down by as many as 11 points in the second and third periods, however Cook found his range and scored back to back three point shots.

This gave Wolves confidence and all of a sudden they were on a run and went into the break at the end of the third period up by seven points.

The confident Wolves continued to pester Reign, however the Fife side just plugged away and eventually took the lead in the final minutes of the game.

But Wolves found themselves on the free-throw line down by three points with eight seconds to go.

Marc Dickson scored both free throws cutting Reign’s lead to one.

However a defensive miscommunication between Dickson and Smyth allowed the Reign to get the ball up the floor quick and score an easy basket to finish the Wolves off for good.

The final score was 64-61 in favour of Dunfermline Reign.

A good weekend all round, with some excellent basketball played throughout the club.