Jake Heyen was on fire from outside the perimeter, sinking four-out-of-five, three-pointers in his 13-point total. 84895 Pictures: JARROD POTTER
By JARROD POTTER
IT can be hard to find the resolve in your last match of the season when last place is already guaranteed.
The Pakenham Warriors didn’t show any disinterest or lack of enthusiasm in their 10-point loss to Craigieburn on Saturday night, finishing the season on a high as they took the match right up to the second placed Eagles.
Pakenham’s slow start killed their chances for victory – trailing 27-15 at the quarter time break before ramping up their offence throughout the remaining three terms.
A barnstorming last term saw the Warriors pull back a 26-point deficit to 76-86 at the final buzzer of the year.
Their best work was done outside the line, with 10 three-pointers getting sunk by Pakenham’s long range specialists – Jake Heyen, Craig Drew, Daniel Stow and Sean Armstrong.
Armstrong capped off a solid season with 30 points and 10 rebounds to take his final averages to 12.4 points and 8.7 rebounds per game – nearly a double-double average across the year for a 17-year-old.
“The bad key moments were the first quarter – we let it go,” Pakenham coach Leon Stapley said.
“Other than that, all in all it was a pretty good game.
“Having said that it was a game typical of the season – the scoreline never reflects how hard we played.
“We just went out there and tried to get the job done, but had a brain fade in the first quarter.
“We missed our foul shots and you take that out of it and we walk away with a pretty close game and if not a win.”
Stapley said Bill Winder, Charlie Taualii and Daniel Jeavons were impressive in close while Heyen’s ability to knock down long range shots, especially after only just returning from injury, puts the team in good stead for next season.
“Charlie did a great job defensively on their big guys, Bill did his usual thing and Jeavo stepped up as well,” Stapley said.
“Jake Heyne knocked down some threes which is cool – he just got back from injury and it was good to have him hitting those shots.”
Stapley wanted to thank the Pakenham committee for letting him run the team the way he wanted to, the players for stepping up under his guidance and the fans who kept showing up week in, week out despite the sometimes lopsided results.
“Just want to thank the club and thank the committee for the chance and letting me run the team the way I wanted to and thanks for all the players,” Stapley said. “People don’t see all the hard work and extra training and all those nice things the players don’t have to do but do anyway.
“It’s great having the home crowd – even though we’re losing, they were getting behind us and that’s always good to get an extra boost.
“They’re brilliant – they’re always getting around us and following us around to the other venues.”
The team’s improvement from when he took charge in May has been vast and Stapley believes it will only get better with an extra year into the younger players and some wise recruiting over the off-season.
“We’re more consistent and you can see what we’re trying to do,” Stapley said.
“The guys are improving at training and needed to get back to some basics and that’s what we did.
“Back into a hard preseason early this year and we’ll be a year older and more wiser.
“We definitely need to go and get a true big at 6.6, 6,8 who’s going to get the job done we just need to do that.”
The Warriors finished the season with a 2-18 record including wins over Western Port and Maccabi.
