Hume City Broncos’ dream of a third straight Big V women’s state championship came to a heartbreaking end on Sunday.
After taking game one of the best of the three series last week against Ringwood Hawks, the Broncos were left to rue a slow start in game two on Saturday night, going down 65-58.
In game three on Sunday, it went to the wire, with the Hawks taking the lead in the final minutes to win 57-55.
The Hawks had lost the previous two championships to the Broncos.
For Broncos’ assistant coach Warren Taylor, it was heart-breaking to get so close to a third straight title.
“We were up by six points late in the game before Ringwood finished the game on an 8-2 run to get the win,” Taylor said.
“Sarah Wright and Mua Laloifi had foul shots in the last minute of the game, and we went 0-4 from the line.
“We drill into the girls how important free throws are in every game.”
Taylor said they’d come out slowly in both games, but had been confident of winning game three after the game two loss, in which Colleen Planeta top-scored with 19 points and Nicole Zammit got 14 points.
“It was a clean slate. I thought we had been complacent in game two and let the play come at us.” Taylor said.
“The attitude was better and we were pretty focused.”
Planeta was also Broncos’ top-scorer in game three, with 16 points, while Nicole Zammit and Laloifi also hit double figures.
Hawks’ Amber Hegge was the grand final’s most valuable player, averaging 17 points across the three games.
“She was the difference in the series,” Taylor said. “We did a good job on her at times, but when push came to shove, they put the ball in her hands at the right times.”
Taylor said Zammit had been the Broncos’ stand-out, playing all throughthe three games.
“If we had have won the series, Nicole would have been MVP. She was our best player by daylight.
“Colleen got beaten up in the key, which we knew would happen. She was still a solid player for us. Mua had a good last month, and was on Amber for most of game three.
“Nicole McMahon didn’t get much time in game two, but did a good job in game three … but there was too big a gap between our best and worst.”
