Tara Murray
Hume City Broncos made it two from two and celebrated coach Carey Papanicolaou’s 500th Big V game as coach in style in the women’s championship on Saturday night.
The Broncos hosted the Sunbury Jets in the local rivalry match and were able to come away with a solid 83-74 win.
Papanicolaou said they’d had a really good start to the season.
“I’ve been really happy with the way the girls are going,” he said. “It was a performance.
“We started really well. We started slow last week and we wanted to improve on that.
“Sunbury is a quality team and has some good players. We kept going and found a way to win.”
The Broncos led by 13 points at quarter before the Jets slowly decreased the lead in the next two quarter to reduce the margin to seven points at the final break.
The Broncos were able to steady in the final quarter to seal the win.
Samantha Labro top scored with 20 points coming off the bench, while Taylor Edwards (16 points) and Tashia Overby (15 points) also scored double figures.
Papanicolaou said it was a really strong performance across the board.
“Taylor was good and Sam was on a hot streak for a while,” he said. “Tash, Tegan [Hindle]… It was a whole team effort.”
For Papanicolaou, he said he was more worried about getting the win than marking his 500th game.
While in his first season at the Broncos, he has coached at Coburg, Altona, Whittlesea, Wallan and Keilor, across both men’s and women’s programs.
“It is a nice achievement looking at it,” he said. “I’ve been coaching since 1999.
“It’s a big commitment. I’ve only missed three or four games as I’ve been away and missed three or four training sessions.”
Papanicolaou said they were really happy with the state considering it was a slow start to the pre-season with availability and injuries.
He said it had been better in recent weeks.
“We’re getting there,” he said. “We’ve done a lot of hard work and there’s still a lot of room for improvement.”
While undefeated, the Broncos have a challenge ahead of them this weekend with a double header against last season’s grand finalists, Wyndham and the Bulleen Boomers.
“It’s going to be a test for us,” Papanicolaou said. “We’ll see how we go.”
The Broncos men got their first win of the championship season on Saturday night.
Facing the Keysborough Cougars, the Broncos built into the game.
Scores were level at quarter time before the Broncos won the next two quarters to lead by 13 points at the final break.
With the match in their hands, the Broncos rotated their side and continued to pile on the points to win 91-65.
Scott Stone top scored with 25 for the Broncos, while also having nine points and four assists.
The Broncos face the Blackburn Vikings in round three.
