By Jonty Ralphsmith
Twenty-two days after a surprise 83-75 loss to Western Port started a Pakenham form slump, the Warriors are hoping its 104-69 win is a sign of things to come.
The victory follows four straight losses for the Big V championship men side, with the hosts’ shooting the key improvement.
Across its run of losses, Pakenham went at a field goal percentage of 38 per cent with several key players struggling for rhythm – on Sunday it was 48 per cent with all starting players scoring at least 13 points.
After a free-flowing first quarter, Josh Dow made three consecutive threes to help the Warriors break away from the visitors early in the second quarter.
From there, Pakenham was able to consistently build the lead, with all players having a confidence-instilling period of play.
Matt Berkec finished with nine points in the third quarter; to start the fourth quarter, Cody Fredrickson followed up a dunk with a three and a block; Tiras Morton capped off his most productive offensive game with a last quarter dunk; and Joe Davis was dominant off the boards, finishing with 12 rebounds.
“We’re constantly looking at things to improve and we’ve actually been pretty happy with most of it,” said coach Rob Roberts.
“The one thing we’ve had is a shooting slump and that’s basically been it.
“We’ve had plenty of good looks and that (first game against Western Port) started (the slump) off.
“We’ve struggled to put a competitive score up.
“We’ve tried to make some changes but sometimes these sorts of things happen so hopefully this was us getting out of it.”
“It’s nice to get a game on the home court where everyone contributed, and there really wasn’t a drop off when we brought other guys on to the court.”
Pakenham was blessed with the inclusion of scoring machine Malik Colvin-Seldon in the first portion of the season, who averaged 24.5 points per game, prior to his departure for Mexico.
While his absence has taken some time to adapt to, Roberts says the shooting across the board was far more efficient in the early part of the season, regardless of his presence.
Victories and better shooting games in rounds seven and eight, following Colvin-Seldon’s departure, further highlight the losing streak did not correlate with his absence.
“That slump was a result of some guys who scored at the start of the season not scoring as much lately,” Roberts said.
“Those guys are harder on themselves than anybody else because they know what we’ve been going through.”
Western Port was able to stay in touch with Pakenham in the first quarter, built off the back of nine points and three rebounds to club-leading scorer Russell Permenter.
Permenter was crucial in Western Port’s victory over Pakenham earlier in the month, but the Warriors were able to combat him after quarter time, as he finished with just six more points for the game.
“We worked on what we wanted to do against him this time, and it seemed to work pretty early,” Roberts said.
“He had the start we were, to an extent, expecting.
“The difference was – we were okay with him getting a decent start if we were holding some other guys down and we did that, which carried on for the rest of the game.”
Morton had his most productive scoring game on Sunday with 18 points and was his usual defensive presence.
Positively, he also went through the game without a foul, after getting fouled out in the previous weekend.
Berkec and Dow contributed 19 points apiece while Davis and Morton combined for 25 rebounds.
The previous day, Pakenham went down 106-75 to Hume, Cal McNiff leading the scoring with 15 points, while Michael Johns landed three threes and was the best shooter on the day, alongside Fredrickson.
Meanwhile, the women were comprehensive in their defeat of Hume, winning 105-57.
For the second consecutive game, the Warriors got off to an unbelievable start, not conceding a field goal until more than four minutes into the contest to take an early 12-1 lead.
Leading 27-9 late in the first quarter, Hume was able to trim the margin at quarter time, but the first quarter set the tone for Pakenham’s clinical victory.
Breanna Mackenzie was influential early, with nine points, three rebounds, an assist and steal before quarter time.
The second quarter was the Rhiannon Gallagher and Haille Nickerson show, as the pair finished with 21 points between them in the second quarter, including five threes.
Leading by 29 points, Pakenham cantered to victory, with Nickerson finishing with a team-high 23 points and Erica Meyer and Ebony Sans each having seven rebounds, while Briahna Whatman had six assists.
This weekend, Pakenham has a double header at Cardinia Life, with both senior sides taking on Camberwell.
The women, currently sitting fifth, take on the winless Camberwell from 6pm.
The men, seventh, take on the 3-10 Camberwell from 8pm.
