So close, yet so far for ladies

Tom Greer liked what he saw as he celebrated from the sidelines. 154813

By RUSSELL BENNETT

THE Pakenham Warriors Division 2 women have come agonisingly close to recording their first ever Big V basketball win – falling just four points short of Sherbrooke on Saturday night, 53-49.
As part of a triple-header of games at Pakenham’s Cardinia Life stadium that also included the Warriors youth men’s and senior men’s teams, Darren Thomas’ women’s side was right in the contest until the dying stages.
The team, in its second season, is now winless through its first 10 games in this campaign and is seemingly anchored to the 10th and last spot on the Division 2 ladder – behind the ninth-placed Sherbrooke, which recorded its second win.
Hayley Leknius was stellar for Pakenham on Saturday, finishing with a huge 16-point, 15-rebound double-double, while Tess Young recoded a whopping 23 rebounds.
In what was hardly a game for the purists, the Warriors shot just 25 per cent from the field but that dwarfed Sherbrooke’s 17 per cent effort.
The Warriors turned the ball over just 17 times for the game, but could only sink 11 of their 26 free-throw attempts in a costly conversion rate.
The news was much better, however, for the Jeff Reid’s Division 2 men’s side which narrowly saw off Coburg, 58-55 in the last game on Saturday night.
The two teams have an intriguing recent history of close battles, and Saturday’s was no different as the Warriors recovered from scoring just five points in the entirety of the first quarter.
They scored 21 in the last to just 12 from the Giants to clinch the win, with skipper Paul Phillips (7 points and 9 boards) and Kenneth Hall (9 points, 17 boards and 2 blocks) leading the way as a low-post tandem. Forwards Hayden Davey and Ben Gaze also scored 15 points apiece.
The Warriors now sit a game clear in second on the ladder, a game clear of Mornington and just one adrift of Western Port.
In the other game held on Saturday, the Warriors’ Youth League 2 men saw off Western Port in a nailbiter, 70-68. Impressively, only two Warriors players scored in double-figures in what as an outstanding all-around effort. Pakenham now sits in fourth spot on the Youth League 2 ladder, just one win behind local rivals, Casey.
The Warriors’ youth men will this Saturday head to Warrnambool for a clash against the hometown side, before returning to face Casey at home on Sunday afternoon.
The women’s side will head to Mornington on Saturday night, while Jeff Reid’s men will host a top-of-the-table blockbuster against Western Port this Sunday afternoon from 3pm.