By Jonty Ralphsmith
Pakenham’s men have secured a big 84-75 win over Warrnambool to propel themselves to third on the ladder.
Captain Joe Davis was the star of the show, scoring 31 points to go with eight rebounds.
His team got out of the blocks quickly, skipping out to a 14-4 lead which had them on the front foot from the getgo.
Warrnambool reeled the margin back to five at quarter time, and got as close as a point early in the second before Pakenham again broke away.
The margin remained comfortable for the rest of the contest for the men, Warrnambool winning the fourth quarter, but never able to tighten the margin more than five points.
Meanwhile, the women went down 54-40 as they couldn’t capitalise on the opportunities they got against McKinnon.
The coach was rapt with the defensive intent as McKinnon was kept to such a low score, but lamented their inability to put scoreboard pressure on.
The Warriors had periods of dominance but denied themselves any momentum due to their misses.
The Warriors scored from just four of the 17 three-pointers attempted, while the overall field goal percentage was also down, which seems to be an anomaly rather than a trend.
Led by Ebony Sans and Canadian Haille Nickerson, who got 17 defensive rebounds between them the Warriors were able to keep the margin in check.
But neither they, nor any of their teammates scored more than six points.
By contrast, McKinnon’s Brianna Gray netted 24 points, which proved the difference between the two teams.
In the youth league, Ethan Small and Cooper Lanting turbocharged a Pakenham win over Melbourne University, winning 91-87.
It was a see-sawing tussle all day, but the Warriors’ 34-21 last quarter proved the difference.
Within a point with just over two minutes to go in the third quarter, the Warriors gave up two late three-pointers and two two-pointers which saw them go into the last nine points down.
To that point, Lanting had been the star of the show with 24 points and seven rebounds, but he was substituted out and didn’t take part in the last quarter.
Everything his replacement, Ethan Small, touched in the last quarter turned to gold as he sunk 17 points including all five of Pakenham’s three-pointers in that time.
The youth league women were within four points with just under a minute to play but ultimately went down 72-63 to Camberwell despite 16 points to Chloe Zielinski.
