By JARROD POTTER
THE bookends of Pakenham’s 91-73 win over Mornington proved especially promising, but the middle quarters saw a fade-off which the Warriors will wish to quickly erase from the repertoire.
The Warriors opened strongly – hitting 10/22 from the field – including a perfect 5/5 from the perimeter – to street out to a 25-15 lead.
Without Bill Winder or Daniel Stow – two of Pakenham’s tall forwards and three-point options – the Warriors turned to Jay Richardson (3/4 three-pointers), James Topp (2/4), Jay Ferriere (2/5) and Jed Bentley (2/6) to hit the long-range bombs.
Mornington fought back into the game in the third quarter, outscoring Pakenham 25-18 to reduce the deficit to seven at the final change, from a peak of 20.
The usual suspects stood up for Pakenham in the fourth as the Warriors wrestled advantage back with a 30-19 final quarter shellacking.
– James Topp (25 points, eight rebounds) continued his early bid for All-Star honours while Sean Armstrong (15 points, 13 rebounds) has cherished his reduced responsibilities and relinquishing the starting-point duties from 2012 to 2013.
Rounding off the success were Warriors’ starting Jays – Ferriere (11 points, five assists) and Richardson (11 points, seven rebounds).
“Last week we fought to the death and came up just a touch short, so to get the first one at home is massive for us,” Pakenham coach Ryan Rogers said.
“To play short-handed, bigs-wise without Stowie or Bill, it was massive to come away with this W.”
Standing up for the Warriors, in his best game in the blue and yellow so far, was Tim Bydder – accruing 12 points, 10 rebounds and three assists from 30 minutes, including significant stints running the point.
“Unbelievable effort on the glass – we made a real concerted effort to get numbers other than our predominant bigs and Sean and Bydder came up massive for us on the boards,” Rogers said.
Rogers was also impressed with the tentative return of Jimmy Magrath from a foot injury – who reeled off five points in only 10 minutes of game time.
The Warriors jump to fourth on the Big V Division 2 Men’s ladder with the win and will head to Somerville on Saturday night to face the Western Port Steelers at 8pm.
– JARROD POTTER
