By RUSSELL BENNETT
THE Pakenham Warriors let out the frustration of three recent heartbreaking losses on Big V Division-2 men’s basketball newcomers, the Collingwood All-Stars, on Saturday evening with a massive 28-point win – 97-69.
The Warriors went into the clash having already lost this season to Western Port, Coburg, and Mornington by a combined total of just eight points.
But on the weekend on their home floor at Cardinia Life, enough was enough.
“Coming off last week, we were close (against Western Port) but the intensity and the effort wasn’t quite there for the full 40 minutes,” said Warriors coach Jeff Reid courtside immediately following Saturday night’s game.
“But we turned that around today, which was great.”
The Warriors played a high-octane, exciting brand of up-tempo offense on Saturday – getting out on the fast break at every given opportunity.
And they also used a relentless press to great effect, forcing Collingwood into the bulk of their whopping 39 turnovers. Reid said he was particularly encouraged with how his men were able to run out the game.
“Right from the outset we just wanted to run, run, run against those guys,” Reid said.
“They’ve got a couple of quality bigs and that’s where they do most of their damage, so we knew if we could run their asses off they’d be ineffective in the second half.”
The Warriors also made 10 of their 24 three-point attempts – a noticeable improvement over recent weeks – and that also made a huge difference to the result.
“We always shoot the ball well at home, and when you get that atmosphere with the crowd up and about, everybody starts to feed off that.
“It was a great turnout tonight.”
Import guard Darren Galloway led the Warriors with 19 points on 8-17 from the field and pushed the ball down the floor at every given opportunity, as did Hayden Davey (16 points, 11 rebounds, 4 steals) and Sean Armstrong (11 points).
But just as encouraging were the performances of Harry Van Dort and Simo Pajdic.
Playing in his first meaningful minutes since returning from a knee injury, Pajdic was uninhibited in his shooting stroke – nailing both of the long-range bombs he attempted. Van Dort, meanwhile, showed plenty of aggression on both ends of the floor – finishing with 15 points, six rebounds (including 5 offensive), and four steals in just 20 minutes on court.
The Warriors also held Collingwood to just 69 points on the other end, on just 40 per cent from the floor.
Reid said while his side’s target was still to hold its opposition to 60, its defense improved throughout the contest.
Earlier on Saturday, in the first game of a double-header, Pakenham’s Big V women went down to Chelsea 92-39 with Megan Tolley (7 points and 6 rebounds) leading the way for the home side. They’ll next host Coburg from 5pm this Saturday, with the Warriors’ men to follow against Craigieburn.
