THE learning curve continues to grow for Worcester Wolves Under 14s after two defeats in a national league tournament.

Wolves played two games within 15 minutes of each other, losing 62-33 to Shropshire Warriors and 62-39 to hosts Ilkeston Outlaws.

In the first game against Shropshire, the city side started well by dominating the boards at both ends and restricting their opponents to outside shots.

This gave them confidence as they drew fouls but sadly the resulting free throws were not converted.

Russell Burford and Max Wright scored well from offensive plays for Wolves but could not match the overall point-scoring of the more experienced opposition, who led 25-13 at half-time.

In the next four minutes, Warriors went on an 11-4 run as Wolves’ defence went missing.

A time-out saw Worcester make alterations and they pressured the Shropshire playmaker, which worked well.

But they were too far behind to make any difference to the result.

In addition, as they tired, passes went astray with Warriors taking full advantage to win by 29 points.

The travelling Wolves only had 15 minutes to recover and began their second game on the back foot as Ilkeston went into a 6-2 lead within two minutes.

However, the young Wolves battled hard and reduced the deficit to just one point before Ilkeston stretched their lead to 19-10. The lead increased to 40-20 at half-time.

The second-half started with Wolves trying hard to pressure the Outlaws’ defence and then run a strong offence.

The boys stuck to the plan with real determination and only lost the half 22-19 but the damage had been done in the first part.

Wolves Under 18s produced a brave effort before losing 91-59 to unbeaten Midlands Conference leaders Notts Nova at the University of Worcester.

The hosts were missing top-scorer Max Whittle among a string of injuries.

Notts pressed hard from the start and caused Wolves to concede turn-overs but points were scored at both ends.

Paul Bessant went on to top-score for Wolves with 19 as well as four rebounds.

Connor Griffing added 14 and Ollie Timmins had his best game yet.

At half-time, the visitors were 50-32 up and this lead increased to 75-47 as the fourth quarter started.

Wolves’ Neb Ravic came off the bench to score 10 and the coaching team introduced 15-year-old development players who showed up well.

Coach Steve Bessent said: “We believe Notts to be a better team than Birmingham last week and we did not let up from our game-plan throughout the match.

“I am hoping that this provides a springboard for these young players to believe in themselves as, although we were beaten by a better team with an outstanding point guard, we did all that we could.

“We did miss the guys who were out with injury but they will have to prove that they can do more for the team than those who played in this match if they want to get back in.”