By Jonty Ralphsmith
Pakenham has bounced back from its first loss of the season with an 88-75 victory over Shepparton.
The Warriors broke away with a 16-4 burst through the middle of the first quarter and had a healthy buffer for the rest of the game.
Malik Colvin-Seldon made 21 points and currently sits second in the competition’s points-per-game tally with 26.
“We identified areas we’ve been struggling with in the first three rounds and spent a lot of time on them last week so this was a culmination of that,” said coach Rob Roberts.
“It was good that we put so much hard work in this week into what we wanted to do and it paid off on Sunday.
“It was hard to see where we needed to improve across the first two games – we won both games and the stats were very good but the Keysy game gave us the opportunity to work on some things, mostly down the defensive end, letting the opposition score too much.
“We were a little bit low on score this week but to hold them to 75 was a ridiculously good defensive effort.”
Across Pakenham’s first three matches, it conceded an average of 103 points per game.
Cal McNiff missed the match unlocked opportunity for Josh Norton and Michael Johns.
“We’re nothing without our whole squad – those guys who sit on the end of the bench and earn their minutes , all we can ask of them is to give us their best when they do get an opportunity and both of them stepped up in Cal’s absence and played realistically, his minutes and absolutely killed it,” Roberts said.
The coach also praised the output of Josh Dow and Ned Weideman: “’Dowy’ and Ned both had the game we needed out of them defensively – they were both guys who we give jobs to and they stepped up the defensive pressure and the other guys went with them.”
Meanwhile, the women went down 113-86 to Wyndham, the hosts opening up a healthy buffer which proved insurmountable late in the first quarter.
Briahna Whatman scored 21 points while Erica Meyer scored 10 to go with seven rebounds.
The women’s next match is against the winless Camberwell, while the men play Melbourne University at Cardinia Life on Saturday night and Camberwell on the road the following day.
