Both Pakenham Warriors outfits are through to the Country Basketball League (CBL) finals after a busy weekend on the court in the final round of the regular season.
The women had a huge task set of them, needing to win both games against Wonthaggi and finals-hopeful Moe to clinch a spot in the postseason.
The weekend started on a good note as massive second and third quarter runs from the Warriors boosted a solid win against the Coasters 91-70 at home on Saturday.
Pakenham outscored the visitors by double figures across the second and third to turn what was a tied game at quarter time to a 22-point halftime buffer which it never looked back from.
Tyla Scorah was lethal from the outside, knocking down six triples on her way to a CBL season-high of 22 points.
Shanelle Kingston produced another 18-point outing while centre Hayley Letts also provided 18 in the win.
The victory set up a do-or-die final matchup against Moe, with the winner playing finals and the loser eliminated.
A tight contest ensued as the Warriors flipped a four-point quarter time deficit into a three-point halftime advantage.
A 20-8 third in favour of Pakenham had the Warriors jump out to a double-digit lead that was never relinquished, finishing with a 76-64 triumph at Latrobe Leisure Moe Newborough.
Rhiannon Gallagher starred with 18 points and she was supported well by Chelsea Schreuder with 15 and Letts with 13.
Pakenham snuck into the finals with a 6-3 record, resulting in a semi-final fixture against the top-placed 8-1 Korumburra Wildcats.
The men were already locked into finals but still managed to hold off a motivated Wonthaggi side 111-85 on Saturday.
The scoreline doesn’t even come close to telling the story of the game as the Coasters actually led by seven early in the fourth quarter.
But the Warriors closed the game on a 43-10 run to completely blow away the visitors.
The win was spearheaded by Cal McNiff with 27 points, Hayden Melsen with 25 points and five threes and Luke Rawiri with 22 points and four triples.
Coach Braden Venning highlighted the defensive side of the ball as what sparked the game-deciding run.
“We had to be better and more physical on defence,” he said.
“Once we got some stops we ignited our transition and got out on the run.
“It was a good challenge, Wonthaggi were fighting for their season, they needed to beat us to make finals.
“Hayden Melsen had been shooting amazing all game, but he was giving up good shots to find greater shots for his teammates.
“He probably had four assists in the last frame and made some really big plays for us.
“Hayden was huge for us early as well, we were pretty slow offensively.
“Our first half was pretty low-scoring and he was the only one who could hit a shot for us.
“And Cal McNiff is Cal McNiff, he’s an amazing player and we’re lucky to have him on our team.
“He did a defensive job on Vinny Monaghan, who’s played NBL1 for years.
“Cal, as well as scoring, was huge defensively for us.
“While it’s not only points for Cal, his defensive intensity and ability to defend the ball has been outstanding for us.”
On Sunday, a short-handed Pakenham lineup was overrun by Moe 107-90 for the Warriors’ first loss of the CBL season.
Pakenham kept it close until the fourth, where the Meteors outscored the Warriors by 10 to push the game out of reach.
The loss meant Pakenham finished second, setting up a rematch of the 2024 CBL grand final against Warragul in Saturday’s semi.
“We let ourselves down defensively,” Venning said of what was costly against Moe.
“We’ve just got to have our split-line coverage.
“To give up 107 points in a game, that’s nowhere near where we need to be.
“There’s key things on defence we’ve got to fix up.
“Offensively we were very stagnant, you could tell it was the back end of a double-header.
“We were undermanned but we were around it, they probably just had a little bit too much for us.
“I don’t want to give excuses though, we had enough to win and we probably should’ve, we let ourselves down at key moments, that’s basketball.
“We now lead into a grand final rematch on Saturday, so that should be fun.”
