By Jonty Ralphsmith
Pakenham’s Youth League women will be ruing shooting inefficiency in a 72-59 loss to Albury Wodonga Bandits at Cardinia Life on Saturday night.
The Warriors’ two-point percentage in the first half was just 19 per cent, compared to the visitor’s 53 per cent, with Pakenham missing easy layups, despite looking as threatening as the visitors.
Albury Wodonga were also cleaner, Pakenham conceding 15 steals to three.
Remarkably, 18 of Pakenham’s 26 points from the field in the first half came from threes, with Tyla Scorah making three of them, including Pakenham’s first two buckets of the game.
Scorah had a hot start, combining her early points with two defensive rebounds and a steal in the first five minutes.
After taking the early lead, Pakenham went three minutes without scoring miday through the first quarter, a dismal sign of what was to come in the second quarter as their opponents capitalised.
Trailing by just two points after a tough first quarter, Pakenham didn’t get on the board until 5:32 into the second quarter, but were typically dialled in defensively to keep themselves in the contest.
It was the third quarter when Albury Wodonga broke away, their lead swelling from seven at the half to 16 at the last change.
A nine-point surge to finish the game trimmed the margin, but the Warriors were too far behind to mount a serious case.
The senior women followed at 8pm, going down 89-71 to Sherbrooke in a big blow to their finals hopes.
The game got away from the Warriors in the second quarter, with Sherbrooke going on a 17-2 run late to wrench the game firmly in their favour.
In her 150th game, Ebony Sans had seven rebounds and two steals, Haille Nickerson scored 15 points to go with eight rebounds and four assists, and Rhiannon Gallagher bucketed her trio of three attempts.
The men also played on Saturday night, on the road against Melbourne University, going down 100-87.
The Warriors were beaten off the boards, and punished by Melbourne University’s shooting from deep.
Pakenham trailed by as much as 23 in the last quarter before pulling the margin back with a 12-4 run late which included a Tiras Morton dunk.
Morton and fellow import Joe Davis were both strong, scoring 22 and 20 points respectively, while Morton also had a team-high 13 rebounds, three triples and three steals.
