Bill Winder made 14 points and took six rebounds in the Pakenham Warriors 71-50 pre-season loss to Peninsula. 77456 Picture: Jarrod Potter
By Jarrod Potter
BIGGER bodies and more experienced heads prevailed as the Pakenham Warriors suffered a loss to the Peninsula Breakers 71-50 in a preseason practice match on Saturday.
The young Warriors side couldn’t put the ball in the net, hitting 15 from 65 from the field to trail at every break. Despite falling behind by 10 points or more on a couple of occasions, the Warriors continued to fight back to stay in the contest.The resilience fell away in the final quarter, with Pakenham getting outscored 25-12 as Peninsula ran away 21 point winners.
Pakenham playing-coach Bayi Handy said the Warriors’ shooting let them down, but for a young team which hasn’t played together a lot, good signs are present.
“There’s a lot of young guys on our club right now, so we’ve just got to get used to playing with each other and at that level,” Handy said.
“The positives are some of our young guys were able to step up.
Bill Winder lead the scoring for Pakenham, hitting 14 points and snaring six rebounds, with Daniel Stow getting 11 points and seven rebounds.
“A lot of our guys are relatively young with the exception of Bill (Winder) and Stowey (Daniel Stow) but those guys stepped up big, so that was really helpful.
“We’re going to continue to grow and build on each game and capitalise on everything and take it from here.”
Pakenham is looking for another practice match before the Labour Day weekend Big V Tournament begins and before their season kicks off against Craigieburn on 17 March.
