By Jonty Ralphsmith
Pakenham Warriors Championship Women’s team is fourth on the ladder after 10 games after beating Southern Peninsula by four points on Saturday and losing to Hume by six on Sunday.
The Warriors have risen to the challenge of playing in the top-flight of Big V basketball.
The Warriors had to overcome a slow start against Southern Peninsula, working their way to a win after being down by 14 points at the first break.
The women were quick out of the blocks the following day, up by 10 points at halftime, before they hit a wall and were overrun by the visitors.
Haille Nickerson was typically dominant in game one, her 32 minutes of court time yielded 16 points and 14 rebounds. Against Hume, she scored 17 points.
Pakenham’s Division Two Men’s team recorded a 10-point loss in a difficult match up against Sherbrooke…weakening the Warriors grasp on top spot.
There were six lead changes throughout the Sunday afternoon contest as the Warriors did not let Sherbrooke get away from them for much of the first three quarters.
However, the visitors took a 12-point lead into three-quarter-time, after a strong end to the stanza, and did not relinquish the lead, consigning Pakenham to a loss.
“Our defensive pressure is looking really good every game, we’re just identifying some patterns that we’ll address at training,” said Pakenham coach Rob Roberts.
“There’s probably only been one game where we have had all our players on the court so I’m really proud of the boys who we’ve got who keep pushing sides with some pretty big budgets.”
A knee injury to Nathan Dodgson changed the way the Warriors setup, further complicating the difficult match-up mid-game as the big man was limited to just over eight minutes.
Joe Davis (19 points, 10 rebounds) and Joshua Dow (21 points) were each influential.
“Josh Dow is without a doubt one of the top defenders in the league,” Roberts said.
“He stops the best scorers regularly and he had another ripping game.
“To have Dowy with his defensive pressure is so important – he was up against a big guy who was athletic but he stayed with him.”
In the youth league, a strong final quarter by the women against Collingwood was not enough to overcome an 18 point three-quarter-time deficit as they went down by four points.
In a tight contest that contained eight lead changes in the final quarter, the men lost by four points to the undefeated Keysborough.