By Jonty Ralphsmith
Pakenham’s women went one from two across the weekend, coming away from a stretch of four games in eight days with two wins in the Big V Championship competition.
The Warriors went down 71-69 to McKinnon on Saturday, before returning home on Sunday to easily account for Sherbrooke 100-66.
Momentum ebbed and flowed in Saturday’s game, with the Warriors trailing by as much as 12 points late in the third quarter, before the Warriors called for a timeout at a decisive stage.
Off the back of that, the Warriors were able to close the margin to five at the last change, Ebony Sans’ three from the corner in the dying seconds ramming home the momentum shift.
After a stabilising start to the fourth quarter for Sherbrooke, Pakenham closed down their scoring for five minutes through the middle of the final period and found the lead.
Down 59-50 and having missed two freethrows, Pakenham was on the ropes before going nine from 11 overall to hit the lead by five as their opponents squandered five opportunities.
The Warriors are set to rue late defensive errors, maintaining the lead until the final minute of the game, before missing three shots during that period while McKinnon made two of two from the field and two of three freethrows which proved the difference.
The following day against Sherbrooke was the Erica Meyer show – the major positive to come out of the four-game burst for coach Rob Dielemans.
Meyer scored 25 points to go with eight rebounds in her best showing in Pakenham colours.
““The difference in the game was Erica,” Dielemans said.
“She was exceptional on the inside. Erica’s now had a game so that she gets self-belief and she defended (Alicia) Carline well, particularly early in the game/
We were able to get the ball to the inside and they were worried about that which opened up plenty of space to shoot the ball on the perimeter.
“The collective worked together really well defensively.
“The girls went hard yesterday when it might have been easy to drop their head and got a really good result out of it.”
A 90-second burst midway through the first quarter where Haille Nickerson, Melissa Prior and Briahna Whatman all scored clicked Pakenham into gear.
Nickerson made 13 of her 24 points in the first quarter, while Rhiannon Gallagher scored all nine of her points in a 29-15 last quarter which underlined Pakenham’s ascendancy.
The coach was full of praise for the defensive efforts of Ebony Sans and Prior, who shutdown Stephanie Pal and Tenaya Sooalo, with that opposition pair combining for just 14 points.
The pair have an established reputation in the competition, with Sooalo averaging 18 points across her first two games, highlighting the significance of those efforts.
The Pakenham women are in action next against the 3-1 Wyndham on Sunday at 3pm.
