By Jonty Ralphsmith
Pakenham’s women have gone down 94-72 against Sherbrooke in the Big V Championship.
Sherbrooke was on top throughout the game but a 21-7 period in the third quarter was where the game got away from Pakenham.
The Warriors were undone by Porsche Poole (37 points, four steals) and Alicia Carline (16 rebounds including eight offensive rebounds).
Hayley Letts made each of her six shots (five twos, one three) from the field, earning praise from the coach, while Sam Romanowski performed admirably, having the mammoth task on Poole.
16-year-old Stella O’Loughlin also generated scoring opportunities coming off the bench.
Gippsland’s men, meanwhile, broke away from Pakenham in the last quarter to record a 76-66 win.
The Warriors’ 12-22 second quarter put them on the back foot after a strong finish to the first stanza had them leading by six points at quarter time.
But they led by as much as six in the third quarter before being overrun late.
Star Josh Dow led the scoring with 18 points while Matt Berkec came off the bench and scored 14 points to go with eight rebounds and three blocks.
Fourth placed Pakenham’s final home-and-away game is against sixth placed Coburg.
The Warriors can rise as high as third and fall as low as fifth.
In the Youth League, the women were able to hold off Sunbury 76-70, which closed to within two points with 30 seconds to play after coming hard in the third quarter.
The youth men won both their matches on the weekend.
It was a 111-51 shellacking against Southern Peninsula, with Cooper Lanting’s 19 points leading all comers on Saturday.
The following day, Ethan Small and Kaleb Beveridge led Pakenham to a 93-63 home victory over Warrandyte, the game setup by a strong start.
After sitting 3-10, the youth men are now on an eight-game winning streak and if they can beat Albury/Wodonga on the weekend in the last round of the season, could sneak into fourth spot in the Watson Division to make finals.
The youth women set up their win with a 16-8 first quarter and were able to hold on 76-70 against Sunbury despite falling away for a patch in the third.
The Warriors backed up the following day against Eltham, but were outscored in every quarter, going down 90-52.
