By Jarrod Potter
IT ALL started in October.
Keysborough Cougars Youth Men’s team put in the hard yards – back in the heat of last summer – and the work paid off with the unfurling of the Big V Youth Men 2 championship pennant that will hang proudly above Springers Leisure Centre following the Cougars 76-61 win over Coburg on Saturday night.
Coach Craig Smethurst was rendered virtually speechless in the after-match celebrations, but managed to say the victory had made the hard work worthwhile.
“It’s an amazing relief and it was a long time coming,” Smethurst said.”I’m just happy for the boys – they put in all the hard work, I just yell and scream from the sideline and at the end of the day they have to physically get out there and do it.”
“All the pain of the preseason, running up-and-down hills in 44 degree weather and now it’s all worth it – we asked them to trust in the process and if they did they’d get there in the end and thank God it happened.”
Keysborough cast aside Coburg in the first quarter at their home-court grand final – shooting 30 points to 13 to build an insurmountable lead.
Sharing the scoring around, grand final MVP Staci Richardson (19 points, 6 rebounds) started the march towards the flag before the Giants started to rouse in the second half.
Whenever Coburg began to threaten, Richardson and Harrison Van Dort (13 points) stepped up to pour ice on the challengers.
Joshua Hearn-Amy (9 points) was the next Cougar to make his mark as he sunk three treys to help slay the Giants.
Coburg found its shooting too late as it outscored Keysborough 26-11 in the final term, but the earlier damage left the Cougars well ahead and earned the club an illustrious 15-point championship victory.
“They shot the lights out in that second quarter and we knew we needed to get a lead – as they always come back at us – and that lead definitely helped out tonight,” Smethurst said. “They knocked us out last year, but I definitely wouldn’t call it revenge cause it’s a real different group of guys.”
Smethurst had two words left to say for the players, staff, fans and family of the Keysborough basketball community.
“Go Keysy,” he said.
BIG V – Division 2
The joys of youth did not extend to the senior Cougars who were eliminated in a 75-79 nail biter in Shepparton.
Losing star centre Kevin Benn to a suspected broken leg in the pre-game warm up, Keysborough was left without its might in the key.
It left the task to Eric Miraflores (26 points) and Jack Houpt (18 points) while Chris Jones (4 points, 16 rebounds) filled Benn’s spot admirably in the front-court.
Shepparton will face Casey in the grand final series, starting this weekend in Shepparton.
