Wildcats’ Siobhan Prior Looking to End Drought Ahead of Trophy Semi

By Sam Neter on December 17, 2014

By Pippa Field, Sportsbeat

Stalwart Siobhan Prior insists the time is now for Nottingham Wildcats to finally end their barren run at the business end of major basketball competitions.

The Wildcats host Sevenoaks Suns on Thursday December 18 in their semi-final of the inaugural WBBL Trophy.

A quick glance at the form books clearly have the Wildcats down as favourites, with Prior and co having lost just once in 13 games this season, the Suns suffering seven defeats in this time.

However 27-year-old Prior, who has a life-long association with the club through her parents – former player and now coach of the Wildcats Mini-ballers Pauline and secretary and former senior coach Chris – knows things are not always so straight forward.

The team have lost in the play-off semi-finals of what was formerly called Division One for the last four seasons while in the National Cup, they have not reached the final since the 2010/2011 campaign.

On that occasion Prior and co suffered an 87-55 loss to the City of Sheffield Hatters to miss out for the second year in succession against the same opponents – and the former England international is itching to rewrite the history books.

“For the club to reach a major final again would be a great thing for the club,” said Prior.

“We have not won a major trophy for a long, long time and we want to get back to lifting trophies.

“The last time we won something major was probably back when my mum was playing.

“For me personally Nottingham is my home club. My mum and dad are both heavily involved with the club and I have been involved with the club from birth.

“My role in the team is a bit this season. We have four full time professionals, most of the load comes down on them.

“But if they are having a bad day and they need me to step up, I’m there. I’d like to think I’ve put in some good performances this season and I’m looking forward to the semi-final.”

The Wildcats currently top the Women’s British Basketball League with nine wins from as many games, in stark contrast to their semi-final opponents who find themselves second bottom with just a solitary victory.

The two met as recently as last month with the Nottingham side coming out on top 82-49, although Prior is not getting complacent, especially with her team having come unstuck in the National Cup quarter-finals against Barking Abbey just eight days earlier.

“Despite our record this season, the games have been difficult, it’s not all been plain sailing, we had a little slip up against Barking,” she added.

“We just take each game as it comes. We are optimistic but we have to show them the right amount of respect.

“They played well against us but we just had one of those games where we could not miss anything.

“We will have to make sure we pay attention to Patricia Bright as she was the one who did most of the damage against us last time.”

The WBBL Trophy Final at the Barclaycard Arena in Birmingham will provide a historic first piece of silverware for the recently launched WBBL. For joint tickets for this event and the BBL Cup Final go to www.theticketfactory.com/bblcupfinal or call 0844338000

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