By RUSSELL BENNETT
THE Pakenham Warriors Big V basketball men’s team has a kind of magic number – 60.
The aim is to hold opposition teams to under 15 points per quarter; or under 60 per game.
And on Sunday at the Colosseum at Cardinia Life, for the first time this season, they accomplished their goal.
Jeff Reid’s men broke through for their first win of their 2015 campaign with a 76-58 triumph over Maccabi in the season’s first ‘Battle of the Warriors’.
And he didn’t exactly try to hide his relief.
“I must admit, I was getting a bit worried!” he said.
“But Division 2 is really wide open this season – I knew that (first) win would come at some point, and that it wouldn’t be too far away.”
In the absence of Warriors big man Paul Phillips, it was a matter of defence by committee against Maccabi focal point Jared Mintz.
He is currently averaging 20 points (on 50 per cent shooting) and 14.3 rebounds per game in a brilliant start to the season, individually, but the Warriors kept him to 13 and 12.
Pakenham was down 19-14 at the end of the first quarter, thanks largely to some questionable decision-making.
But the side settled down in the second and started to find more of an offensive rhythm.
“I thought ‘H’ (Hayden Davey, 13 points and 8 rebounds) did an excellent job guarding him (Mintz), and Sean Armstrong (12 points and 12 rebounds) was great on the glass – he finished with a big double-double,” Reid said.
The Warriors women, meanwhile, continue to show signs of improvement in their debut season.
They were defeated 78-39 by Blackburn at the State Basketball Centre on Saturday night but, despite being outnumbered and outsized in the paint, they refused to be outworked.
The Warriors men will this Sunday take on the Coburg Giants the Coburg Basketball Stadium from noon, while the women will travel to Melbourne University to take on the home side from 6.30 this Saturday night.
