Hume City Broncos got off to the perfect start in the Big V men’s championship finals.
Having finished second after the regular season, the Broncos started their finals campaign at home against the McKinnon Cougars.
A 34-10 first quarter set the tone for the Broncos and the Cougars were never able to really get back into the game.
The Broncos came away with an 111-72 win to earn two shots at making the grand final.
Broncos coach Matt Foster said it’s always nice to get a finals win.
“We’re relieved,” he said. “We are playing a team that is a bit banged up.
“They were missing Mitchell Barry, who is a top five player in the league and Remo [Siman] starts for them as well and he was missing.
“That’s two main starters. The way we played and what we executed we were pretty happy to be playing like that in a final.”
Foster said they were always wary after a start like that you can get nervous about whether you can maintain that same standard for the rest of the game.
He said it was a bit mentally challenging but they were able to complete the job.
“They are definitely a really good team and they made a couple of runs and got it back to 18-20 points just before half time.
“We were able to hold that momentum for the rest of the match.”
All five starters for the Broncos finished in double points, with Kavione Green scoring 37 points and having 12 rebounds and four steals.
Zach McKenzie had 30 points.
With the margin blowing out, every Broncos player managed to get some court time.
“We were able to rotate heavily,” Foster said. “We were able to get some minutes into the young guys.
“They got some experience and got some nerves out which will help them going forward.”
The Broncos now face minor premiers, Keysborough Cougars, in the semi finals with the winner through to the grand final.
The loser has a double chance.
It will be the third time that the Broncos have faced the Cougars this season.
“We’ll see how it goes on Saturday,” Foster said.
“We’ve beaten them in both games but both games were pretty close. It’s hard to beat a team three times.”
