The Pakenham 'Compare Quotes' Warriors welcomed Maccabi to the Colosseum on Saturday where they showed a supreme first half defensive effort to open up a camanding 25 point lead at the main break.

Despite their best efforts the visiting Warriors saw the lead extended in the third by a single point but continued to fight and gave themselves a chance in the dying minutes with sloppy ball use and decision making proving costly for the home side. In the end despite a forgetable fourth period the Warriors hung on for a seven point win (68-61).

Leading Scorers:
J.Reid 20pts & 6rebs
J.Topp 13pts & 9rebs
J.Ferriere 13pts & 5rebs
B.Winder 11pts & 7rebs

Final Scores:

Warriors: 16, 22, 21 9 (68)
Maccabi: 9, 4, 20 28 (61)

On Sunday the Warriors backed up on the road against top four challenger Keilor and despite giving up the first seven points of the game a quick Ryan Rogers time-out settled the ship.

Both teams traded baskets in the middle periods before the Warriors opened up a sizeable 14 point lead in the late stages of the third only to see the Thunder go on a run of their own cutting it to six at the last change.

The last quarter had a little bit of everything; drama, big shots and a crucial game saving rebound from Jay Richardson which sealed the Warriors fate and took their record to 4-2 in a gutsy road win for the team.

Leading Scorers
J.Topp 20pts, 10rebs
J.Reid 19pts, 6rebs
B.Winder 12pts & 7rebs
J.Ferriere 10pts

Quarter by Quarter:
Warriors: 16, 20, 15 18 (69)
Keilor: 17, 14, 14, 22 (67)

Coach’s Comment:
The two wins were outstanding but when you talk about the process and breaking the games down, we showed a real hunger defensively for seven of the eight quarters this weekend which is a major part of our growth.

Offensively the guys played with poise across the weekend and executed our stuff when it mattered but more importantly, we valued posession only having 11 turnovers in both games which has been a sore point of our play in recent weeks.

We are under no illusion that our best basketball is still to come and with the arrival of Jeff Reid in recent weeks there is a new dynamic about our group with his experience and leadership invaluable for the group.

Thanks to all the fans who came out, we definitely need you back and making plenty of noise next Saturday as there's no bigger game than facing the arch rival with top spot on the ladder up for grabs.