By Hayley Wildes
It was a weekend full of incredible BigV action for the Pakenham Warriors.
Pakenham’s Division 2 Men made it three wins on the trot after claiming two scalps over the weekend – with both games following extremely different storylines.
On Saturday night, the Warriors made light work of the North East Bushrangers, storming to a massive 39-point win, 57-96.
The Warriors dominated on both ends of the court and had six players score in double figures, whilst Hayden Davey (14 points, 12 rebounds), Lewis Newman (12 points, 12 rebounds) and Josh Bjelan (10 points, 10 rebounds) all recorded impressive double-doubles.
Whilst Saturday night was a blow-out, Sunday night was a back-and-forth, high scoring battle in one of the games of the season. Taking on the Sherbrooke Suns at home, the Warriors required all hands on deck in order to deal with Eric Miraflores (33 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists).
In a great team effort, the Warriors had three players score at least 18 points; Josh Bjelan (27 points, 10 rebounds), Ben Gaze (20 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals) and Hayden Davey (18 points, 12 rebounds, 4 assists).
The game went right down to the wire, before Pakenham claimed the 97-95 win as Miraflores missed a buzzer-beater.
In Youth League 2 Men, it was a battle of the Warriors as Pakenham took on Maccabi.
After a tight first half, Pakenham fell behind as Maccabi’s offence took over – outscoring Pakenham 25-13 in the third quarter.
To Pakenham’s credit, they came out firing in the fourth as Nathan Dodgson (18 points, 5 rebounds), Lee Belton (16 points) and Ned Weideman (15 points) rallied the troops.
Despite their best efforts, Pakenham fell heartbreakingly short of a dramatic comeback win as Idan Shamis (28 points, 7 assists, 7 rebounds) proved too much, falling to Maccabi 81-83.
Pakenham’s Youth League 2 Women continued their hot start to the BigV season, claiming a hard-fought win over the Western Port Steelers.
Ellie Coutts, averaging 11.7 points, 10.3 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game, once again did a bit of everything for Pakenham. The Warriors needed every one of her 8 points, 11 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 steals and 2 blocks as they scraped home to 50-48 win over the Steelers.
Jasmine Ralls added 14 points – including three triples – in her first game of the season for Pakenham.
