A ludicrous triple-header on Saturday cost Pakenham dearly in the Big V pre-season tournament, but it’s not an issue for Warriors coach Ryan Rogers.
The Warriors smashed Melton 72-50 in the shortened match format on Saturday morning, before a tough-fought 58-39 win over Big V team Shepparton – newly returned. There was perimeter shooting aplenty on display as Jed Bentley hit a number of long bombs, and starting point guard Jay Ferriere hit a one-handed half-court bomb on the half-time buzzer.
With a little over an hour to recover from the Gators’ win, the Warriors travelled from Frankston to Langwarrin and gutted out a narrow four-point loss to Maccabi – who hadn’t played that afternoon at all.
Losing the Sunday round robin match to Mornington 50-64, Pakenham took to the court in the quarter final against cross-town rivals Casey, and were narrowly defeated 55-52 to finish the tournament.
“The way that we came out against Melton to get a 20-point win off the bat … the boys were pretty sharp and carried that form into the second game,” Rogers said.
“One hour off between the second and third games was pretty tough, but we played some different line-ups and tried a few things.
“A few of the boys were a bit tired … it’s was a pretty tough schedule with the three games on Saturday so we’re pretty happy with the outcome.”
Pakenham had the bonus of getting star guard Sean Armstrong back into the side, after he recovered quicker than predicted from a knee cyst.
“Bringing Sean Armstrong back in to the fold was important,” Rogers said.
“Getting him back in for the tournament when we didn’t think we’d get him back until round two or three was great.”
Rogers said despite the successes of the pre-season so far, the Warriors were still a brand new team looking to gel properly.
“It was a good exercise to us to get a look at a couple of the opposition teams we haven’t seen yet, and to get some game time,” he said.
“Even though we had success over the preseason, we’re still a very new team, so to have that game time and get more familiar with each other was invaluable.”
Pakenham heads across town to Coburg to face the Giants in round one on Saturday – with Rogers predicting his charge is strong enough to take the points on the road.
“We faced Coburg round one and had a positive result against them in the pre-season,” he said.
“We think our best is definitely good enough to beat them – it’s a case of managing the workload so they’re (Pakenham) fresh for Saturday.
“Probably have a light session on Tuesday … and Thursday will be fine tuning things in preparation for Saturday.”
In other Pakenham basketball news, long-bomber Aron Pantano has moved regionally with his work and won’t pull on the Warriors colours this season.
