WSN Basketball: Disappointing Teesside Defeat for Wasps

Sorry it is a bit late, but here is last weekends match report, from the Hull Wasps.
You will also notice, that we have again changed the feature title. We fell out of love with ‘the Sting’, last week called it the ‘Best from the nest’ and quickly disliked that. So for your benefit, we spent a few hours in the pub and have come up with a new working feature title – this is it, for the season. So welcome to WSN (Wasps Sport ‘Nest’work) – no, that's it - like it or lump it.

Hull Wasps failed to find their recent form on Saturday afternoon and went down 73-65 points at Tees Valley Mohawks.

The Wasps have been impressive in recent weeks and opened up their league campaign with two convincing victories. Unlike in those performances, the Wasps started this game sluggishly and fell behind in the early exchanges before coming back with a brief run to bring the score to 17-14 at the end of the first quarter.
Tees Valley continued from there and opened up a more convincing 37-27 lead going into the half-time interval.

A half-time team talk didn’t seem to do the trick as it proved much of the same for the visiting Wasps with only some brief runs to keep them in the game. But missing their 6’8” centre and captain John Brignell, their defensive work was lacking and too many cheap baskets were given away to go 57-43 behind before heading into the final quarter.

With time ticking away, the Wasps managed to step up their game and pulled it back to within touching distance but it was too little, too late and the Wasps left Teesside with their first defeat of the season.

Forwards Rob Birchmore and James Rayner joint top-scored for the Wasps with 15 points each with Matt Brutnell scoring 13.

“It was a very poor performance from us” said Wasps coach Matt Fawcett after the game.

“It will be tough in training next week. We have to get back to playing as good as we can and we have to put the work in to get there. The players can do much better than that and everyone is feeling disappointed with the performance and result. We will bounce back next week at home against Middlesbrough, I’m confident of that.”
The Wasps return home for a double-header this weekend against Middlesbrough Lions for a league game on Saturday (7:30pm) and their second-round National Shield clash on Sunday (6:30pm).