Wasps Sting Clawed By Wildcats

It's been abit of a while since we heard from the Hull Wasps, but fear no more as we have a full round up from SportTrades favourite basketball team this week. Firstly in shocking news, the Merseyside Spartans whom you may recall had their game againgst the Wasps last month called off due to a faulty scoreboard have withdrawn from the league. It's a shame for the Spartans and theif fans and obviously like in any sport it's sad when a team cannot fulfill their league requirements. Rightly all league points won over the Spartans have been taken away.

Sadly for the Wasps as a result of this as they now lose what was to be their last regular league fixture at home on March 14th. This is a slight blow considering they've now lost their expected gate for that game, which of course the other teams in the league who have hosted the Spartans have got. However due to this being out of the Wasps control, it's not something that'll worry them.

Now to good news surrounding the Wasps. Firstly last week it was announced that they've appointed a new club physio in Ciara Morrissey. Ciara, who has come to Hull from Limerick in Ireland, works for Hull And East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust as a junior physiotherapist. She qualified from the University of Huddersfield in 2009, with B.Sc.(Hons) in Physiotherapy. While studying, she was physiotherapist for the university's Gaelic football team and recently started assissting the Hull Ionians rugby union team.

Ciara also starred for the University of Huddersfield's girls' basketball team and said she was happy to be getting back involved with the sport. She said: "I am delighted to be working with the team for the rest of the season." Wasps captain Jamie Goodwin said: "We are very lucky to be getting the help of someone with Ciara's knowledge of both physiotherapy and basketball. I am sure she will prove a valuable addition to the team and will be a big help in both the prevention and treatment of any injuries."

Ciara's first game as club physio was on saturday as the Wasps faced off Team Durham Wildcasts at Hull's Gemtec Arena . The Wildcats beforehand were below the Wasps in the league standings, so it was a chance for Chris McKenna's side to widen that gap between the teams in the table if the the Wasps could earn a win. Sadly that wasn't to be the case as the Wildcats condemned the hosts to their 5th defeat of the season, after overpowering the Wasps in the third period.

A close opening first period produced some good end-to-end basketball with Hull Wasps producing a more dominant display in attack but some sharp shooting from the Wildcats, particularly from John Morgan, allowed the visitors to take a narrow 20-17 lead at the end of the quarter. It was more of the same in the second period which saw the Wasps regularly at the free throw line. Some sharper shooting from the spot would have allowed a closer scoreline at the half-time interval but finished 32-36 to the visitors.

After the break Team Durham came out strong and rattled the Wasps with some hard defense. More sharp sooting, this time from their captain Ian Hewitt, allowed the visitors to open up a 12 point lead heading into in the final period.All was not lost however after a good rally from Hull brought them back to within 5 points, but after a scuffle between both sets of players, momentum seemed to swing back in favour of the visitors.

A lack of field scoring from the Wasps allowed Team Durham to increase the margin from the free throw line to take the game 82-63.Hull were missing 6'10 centre Michael Kucmierczyk and forward Jason Munro through injury. Captain Jamie Goodwin top scored with 20 points for the Wasps with Durham's Sam Chambers top scoring with 24 points for the visitors.

Wasps' head coach, Chris McKenna believed that the Wildcats simply outmuscled his side, but was optimistic his side would bounce back. "The Wildcats were a very physical side on Saturday and we have to learn to deal with that. Many teams higher in the National League all have the ability to get tough when it's needed and Team Durham did that very well. If we are to progress we need to learn from these teams and we will.

"We know we have the ability to compete with the best in our league but our performance let us down in that game. We have a tough contest in 2 weeks when Bury come to play us. They are the team to beat right now. They have only lost once all season so we need to be at our best if we are to get something out of the game."