By Jonty Ralphsmith
Pakenham Warriors played 35 minutes of excellent basketball on Saturday, but couldn’t put the game out of reach at Upwey.
Then Sherbrooke pounced.
Leading by five points with five-and-a-half minutes remaining, Sherbrooke outscored the Warriors 17-7 after that point, having changed their defensive setup which threw Pakenham.
Having turned the ball over just six times up until three-quarter-time, Pakenham turned it over thrice in that period alone which helped shift momentum away from them.
As well as core contributors Haille Nickerson, Ebony Sans and Sam Romanowski – Stella O’Loughlin and Hayley Letts put together strong minutes and played important roles.
The next step for Pakenham is to convert more of the repeated tight finishes into wins.
In their nine games decided by 10 points or fewer in 2023, Pakenham has a 2-7 record – but they have won two of their last four.
The outcomes have shown clear improvement in that area in recent weeks but situation-based training remains a focus.
A poor second quarter let the men down and saw them go into halftime with a 12-point deficit which would end up being the final margin, going down 77-65 to Shepparton.
It was a good test for the men, coming up against the top-of-the-table Shepparton which handed them just their fourth loss of the season.
However, they have lost three of their last six, with the other losses coming to Warrandyte and rivals Gippsland, who are both in the upper rungs of the ladder.
The Warriors currently sit in a log-jammed top four, alongside Shepparton, Warrnmbool and RMIT and will be looking to get past 10th-placed Collingwood this week.
The youth men, meanwhile, went down by five points to Mornington.
Having narrowly trailed for the entire last quarter, Michael Johns, who also spent some time on court for the men’s team, sunk a three-pointer with 37 seconds to go.
That trimmed the deficit to three but Mornington was quickly able to extend it again.
Needing to score at least twice for the win in the last 27 seconds Braden Venning’s team took a timeout but couldn’t hit the scoreboard, ultimately going down 101-96.
The youth women tasted success with a 79-69 result set up by a strong first quarter which had opponents Geelong playing catch up for the rest of the evening.
