Warriors fight back

By Jarrod Potter
THE circus might have been outside Cardinia LiFE but the real acrobatics happened on the court Wednesday night, when the Pakenham Warriors flew through the air with a come-from-behind 51-48 victory over Doncaster.
Facing a six point deficit with three minutes left, the Warriors rallied to push ahead and book their spot in the Melbourne Metropolitan Basketball League (MMBL) grand final next Wednesday 14 March.
In a seesawing affair, Pakenham ran out to a 20-8 lead in the second quarter before Doncaster reeled the side back in to go to half-time locked at 21-21.
Doncaster hit 18-14 in the third term to take a four-point lead into the final break.
But Pakenham swooped on Doncaster to take the lead after a Sean Armstrong steal set up a Daniel Jeavons’ lay-up with 20.8 seconds remaining.
With the ball at half court following a time-out, Pakenham played hard defence. Armstrong was fouled and the two free throws he hit secured the three-point victory.
Pakenham coach Rob Roberts said the side’s newly initiated structures and plays in accordance with BigV preparations had paid dividends.
“It was one of those things where everything we’ve been putting together has come together,” Roberts said. “The good thing is we changed everything we were doing, with training for BigV, and we pretty well had to change our plays and it’s starting to come together at the right time.”
Armstrong and Jeavons were pivotal in the win, with Armstrong making a pair of crucial steals in the dying minutes to allow Pakenham to score the much-needed transition points.
“Armstrong had a couple of big steals which got us that point,” Roberts said. “The tip-in he had – which is hard to teach senior players let alone the young players – and the couple of steals he had are what really got us the ball and got us in front.”
Pakenham will face either Doncaster or Warrandyte in the grand final at Waverley on 14 March.