THE Pakenham Warriors men’s team had a good win over Chelsea 6348, while the Women ran out of numbers, losing by only two points.
In the junior program the Under 20 Men played two games over the weekend, winning both including a win over the top team, while the Under 16 Boys Blue had to fight hard to draw level in the last minute.
WOMEN
The Warriors fought hard but were just unable to go the distance with the Craigieburn Eagles.
Again the Warriors suffered from a lack of depth, having only five players on the night. Gemma Craven (15 points) and Liesl Holmes (12) assumed offensive roles with Phillippa and Sarah Antoniadou maintaining defensive pressure in a lowscoring game.
The Warriors were down to four players in the last quarter and missed successive layup attempts from offensive rebounds, any one of which could have changed the result, but the Eagles won in a hard fought game.
Scores: Craigieburn 38 d Pakenham 36.
UNDER 20 MEN
Playing at Waverley, Pakenham started positively and kept adding to the score. Brilliant assists by Wes Petitt and Sean Dixon helped Tim Hendrikx score 35 points for the game and Jamie Stow 18.
Justin Vaux and Cheyne Petitt did some great guard work and Ian Mewburn was superb under the basket as the Warriors won.
Scores: Pakenham 69 d Waverley 32.
The Warriors also played Craigieburn on Sunday. The game was tight from the first jump, but the Warriors played hard and fast to keep up with the Eagles’ great skill, which has had them in first position.
Sean Dixon opened the scoring with the first two goals as threepointers.
Eagles The Eagles tall player held Tim Hendrikx out, allowing Stow to be the Warriors’ main scorer for the game with 15 points. The game remained an arm wrestle to the end but the Warriors kept their composure in the final minutes as the whole team played hard in a good win.
Scores: Pakenham 51 d Craigieburn 47.
UNDER 16 BOYS GOLD
Pakenham played Mornington at Mornington. Pakenham took a while to settle, allowing Mornington to build an early lead. But a burst before halftime put Pakenham back within reach of Mornington, 1722.
Mornington dominated early in the second half, sloppy passing and poor defence letting Pakenham down. Mornington continued to score with relative ease while Pakenham made hard work from limited opportunities. Zac Money led the scoring with 14 points. James Bridgett had a busy second half with 13 points, Justin Smaluch and Nathan Page worked hard for 7 points each, while Chris Williams made the most of his opportunities, scoring a well needed threepointer late in the game.
Scores: Mornington 61 d Pakenham 46.
UNDER 16 BOYS BLUE
The Warriors hosted the Eltham Wildcats and seemed very flat, not getting into the flow of their usual game. Eltham on the other hand had come over intent on beating the leading team and was full of vigour. Good defence helped the Wildcats lead 1512 at halftime.
The second half was similar to the first until James Flannery had to leave the game with a nasty facial injury, which seemed to spur the Warriors into action. Jason Budge (10 points) made some strong baskets while Daniel Jeavons finished the game strongly with 10 points and levelled the game. But time beat the Warriors and the game ran out a draw at.
Scores: Pakenham 39 drew with Wildcats 39.
UNDER 14 GIRLS
The Warriors travelled to Kilsyth on Friday to play Diamond Valley. Samara Griffiths made a welcome return to the team after injury and made an immediate impact by some strong rebounding and scoring. Emma Round helped create scoring opportunities with fine passing. Pakenham was down 913 at halftime.
The Warriors continued their good teamwork in the second half. Megan Wallace displayed good defensive skills and Mikaela Foy was good at both ends of the court. But several shots just missed and, although the Warriors lost, the score was not indicative of how well they played or their endeavour against a strong and tall opposition.
Scores: Diamond Valley 31 d Pakenham 17.
UNDER 14 BOYS
The Warriors played Eltham 7 at home and had possession for most of the game but could not convert on the scoreboard. The Warriors could not score inside but Lewis Vigliarolo drove well and scored four points and Brendan Gillen chipped in for two.
The score was even until, with three minutes to go in the first half, Eltham shot six points to skip away to a 146 lead at halftime.
Pakenham continued the same as the first half with a lot of possession for little score. Adam Young started the scoring for the Warriors with two points then Joey Sweeney finished a fast break with two points, Mark Nicosia drove and scored before Gillen chipped in for another four. Sean Armstrong positioned himself well inside the key to score 12 points for the half. But the Warriors lost another close match by three points.
Scores: Eltham 33 d Warriors 30.
