BSBL men’s A-grade: Bulls Gold defeat Conquerors by 31 points in preliminary final

Bulls Gold have cruised into the Bunbury Senior Basketball League men’s A-grade grand final with a 31-point victory against Conquerors at South West Sports Centre.

The elimination final winners came into the clash full of confidence and made a solid start, but the quality of the victors ultimately shone through as they ran out 109-78 winners.

After a tense start, it was Conquerors who burst out of the blocks, creating several turnovers with a swarming, high-intensity defensive effort.

Conquerors’ Ezekiel McKenzie (12 points) was involved in everything early, tipping several passes and throwing down a breakaway dunk, while an awesome hustle play from Caleb Harmer to recover a loose ball was greeted with rapturous approval from his own bench.

But, Bulls Gold found their footing as their leading lights Pharrel Keats and Byron Jonker began to take advantage of the defensive aggressiveness, with a 21-7 run powering them into a 27-15 lead into quarter-time.

The intensity of the challengers did not dip throughout the remainder of the contest and they went deep into their bench in search of a winning combination, but Bulls Gold found baskets when they needed to.

Jonker finished with 30 points for the winners, doing most of his work on the inside, while Jaikie Hastie and Jordan Yarran (both 13 points) did all they could in defeat.

Bulls Gold will take on Bulls Maroon, who did not drop a game in the regular season and won the qualifying final by 41 points, in the season decider.