Basketball: West Lothian Wolves roaring to glory

Feb 11 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

THERE was double delight at the weekend for the West Lothian Wolves as they celebrated two wins over the Dundee Sharks.

In fact, they were handed their first victory without a basket even being made after the visitors forfeited their scheduled junior (under 18) match claiming they were unable to field a team due to players currently studying for their exams.

The Sharks did though send a cadet team onto the court though to try and tame a Wolves side who have enjoyed a lot of success against their Tayside counterparts this season.

The Wolves introduced two new players to the squad in Robbie Chapman from West Calder and David Robbie from Falkirk and the hosts were in total control of this game starting the game with an 11-0 run, finishing the quarter up 16-7.

Ross Kohler got off to a great start throwing some lovely full court passes to runners for easy baskets.

Ross got into foul trouble early on, which limited his minutes, however, he still had a positive impact in the game.

Ewan Prentice played his best game since the start of the season and the Armadale youngster looked aggressive and constantly attacked the basket, reading the opportunities the defence presented perfectly.

Scott Thompson continued his progression and continue to impress the crowd and his coaches with his defence and effective offence.

The Wolves won the second and third quarters comfortably to take a 42-29 lead into the final quarter.

This lead was due to some great defensive rebounding by Andrew Bleakley, some good defensive and offensive play by new comer David Robbie and by some good shooting by Duncan McPherson.

In the end the Wolves won the game by twelve points, with a final score of 54-42.

Having dumped league leaders The Basketeers last week, the Wolves Senior Men went into their clash against Spartans on a high.

And they continued their rich vein of form by cruising to a 89-57 romp.

In what turned to be a real team performance all nine players who took to the court scored points..

The Wolves used their new found smothering defence to stop the Spartans leading scorer Jamie Reilly from being effective.

The young Spartans guard got frustrated early and could be heard shouting and complaining to team-mates from early in the first quarter.

Andy Smyth, Owen Cook and Andy Sturrock all took advantage of the porous defence to score easy lay-ups.

When the Wolves slowed the game down their trademark slashing offence lead to lots of scores around the basket.

The Wolves guards were aggressive and smart, with Grant Dickson, and the O'Connell brothers Ben and Warren combining for six three point shots.

Marc Dickson looked aggressive pulling down 11 rebounds and attacking the basket to pick up a number of fouls from the undisciplined Spartans players.

Ross Paterson took his first chance to play for the senior men with both hands and fitted right into the offence and played some great defence.

Liam Marshall also saw some minutes, however, they were much reduced as he is nursing an injury to his left knee.

The two juniors were on the floor together and had a lovely play, where Ross passed the ball to Liam near the basket. Liam spun on his defender and put a lovely shot in off the glass.

The games top performers were Andy Smyth with 18 points and nine rebounds, Owen Cook with 17 points and eight rebounds, Warren O'Connell with 11 points and Grant Dickson with 12 points.

Andy Sturrock pulled down 14 rebounds and finished the game with a lovely three point shot.

Finally Paterson finished his first senior game with seven points and six rebounds.