Daniel Jeavons had seven points and 12 rebounds in a strong performance against Cranbourne. 84215 Pictures: JARROD POTTER
By JARROD POTTER
By JARROD POTTER
A GOOD night’s sleep is apparently a big factor in the way Pakenham plays its basketball, going from a 60-92 loss to Mornington on Saturday night before narrowly losing to Cranbourne 76-80.
Trailing 46 to 57 at the final change, the Breakers jumped out of the blocks and smashed 18-0 in the first two minutes to leave Pakenham scratching their heads.
On account of turnovers, bad defence and failed offensive plays, the Warriors conceded 35 points in the final quarter to go down by 32 in a disappointing final term according to coach Leon Stapley.
“We played great for three quarters of basketball,” Stapley said.
“They got an early jump on us and they held a 10-point lead for the best part of the game, but in basically two minutes of the fourth quarter, they scored 18 points.
“They blew us out by 28 and they held that lead and there was nothing we could do about it – it was two minutes of basketball that wrecked our whole game.”
Daniel Jeavons rolled his ankle at training on Saturday, but played out the match and posted 10 points.
Other strong performances came from Sean Armstrong (13 points, six rebounds) and Bill Winder (11 points, 10 rebounds), but Stapley saved the biggest praise for Craig Drew, with Drew’s stopping role on Breakers’ Demarcus Berry pivotal to stopping Mornington’s early onslaught.
“Mornington’s Demarcus Berry came out and scored 13 points in the first half of the first quarter and we put Craig on him and he basically didn’t score again for the rest of the game,” Stapley said.
“Craig shut him down and eventually they took Berry off, so he did a fantastic job.
“He’s one of the guys you say something to and he’s straight on it and goes and does it – no questions, just does his job, which is fantastic as a coach.”
Sunday’s match saw Pakenham play completely different basketball – they rallied to make sure the Cranbourne Cavaliers wouldn’t have it all their way in the four-point loss.
Pakenham outscored Cranbourne after half-time, with Charlie Taualii (14 points, seven rebounds), Armstrong (11 points, 13 rebounds), Winder (10 points) and Jeavons (seven points, twelve rebounds) turning around the problems of the night before to almost clutch a surprise upset.
“Not even twelve hours between matches and we’ve gone from a team that was self-destructive on Saturday night to a team that just held it together,” Stapley said.
“They got to a 14-point advantage and we’d bring it back to zero, then they’d do it again and we’d bring them back.
“We were on a run and we were right back into it and there was only one play in it and we lost by four points.”
It capped off a marked turnaround for the Warriors – who had lost to Cranbourne by 31 points earlier this season – with the progression of form really impressing Stapley.
“It was good as Cranbourne has been playing some great basketball and had some good wins over the past few weeks so it was good to take it to them and turn it around from the night before,” Stapley said.
“It is nice to see that we’re slowly coming together at the end of the season unfortunately, but we’re definitely building a solid base for next season that’s for sure.
“The hardest part is having young guys who were playing 5-10 minutes last season, minimal minutes, now playing 30 minutes a game – it’s a big step up and a big ask for them to do.
“I’m happy with the result of Sunday – it was a much better way to lose than how we did it on Saturday.”
Pakenham faces Melton this weekend, a tough ask especially with Warriors’ centre Taualii out for the match.
