By Jonty Ralphsmith
The Pakenham Warriors men’s side recorded a tight three-point victory against Whittlesea at Cardinia life on Saturday night to remain in the top two.
After 13 lead changes throughout the match, the Warriors held the lead for the majority of the final quarter and held on for a gritty victory.
Alistair Parker (10 points, 12 rebounds) was a key cog in the victory and Joe Davis (27 points), Ned Weideman (17 points, 10 rebounds) and Joshua Dow (14 points, eight rebounds) were all typically influential.
Next up for the men is a home double-header this week, with Melton at 8pm on Saturday followed by Wallan at 2pm on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Pakenham’s Championship women’s team went down to Bulleen by 33 points
The undefeated visitors felt right at home at Cardinia Life and were 30 points ahead at halftime. They remained on top for the rest of the match despite 15 points to Tarryn Wilkin and 12 to Haille Nickerson.
The women have a break this weekend before returning to action on Saturday 21 May against Southern Peninsula.
It was an agonising defeat, also to Bulleen, for the Youth League Women who were so close to beating the still undefeated side.
The Warriors burst out of the blocks, up by 12 at quarter time, but Bulleen worked its way back to level pegging at the final break.
Both teams had opportunities and each had their share of the lead, in the last stanza, but Bulleen were up by three in the final seconds when the Warriors called a timeout.
A clutch three-pointer from Ebony Sans in the last second sent the game into over-time but it took a second period of over time to finally deliver a result – in favour of Bullen.
Alahna Arnason (19 points, 13 rebounds), Sans (19 points) and Louise Karajic Powell (15 points) contributed to the score-line, the team going down 15-12 in the second period of overtime making a final score of 105-102.
Next weekend the youth women have Wyndham at home followed by Warrandyte on the road.
The Youth League Men went down by nine points to Whittlesea giving them their first loss of the season.
Jackson Grey and Michael Johns (16 points) led the scoring for the Warriors with Jarred Small (15 points) and Matt Stevens (13 points) also making useful contributions.
They will look to bounce back this week when they head to Wangaratta.
