Tim Braban | 10th May 2011| The Chronicle

AFTER only one year playing with the Mountaineers, it’s hard to call Stephen Kluck a veteran, but he is one of the few players to go through the dark days of last year.

Kluck and Charles and Anthony Dickerson are the only current Mountaineers players to experience last year’s win-less Queensland Basketball League season, so he savoured Sunday afternoon’s 94-83 victory over Ipswich more than most.

“It gives us a great start to the season. It’s a shame a lot of the fellas from last year weren’t there to see it through,” Kluck said.

While expecting the team to go well and win their fair share of games this year, the 6ft 9in centre never expected their hoodoo-breaking victory to come so early in the year.

But in a sign of the team’s new-found maturity under coach Pop Dickerson, Kluck is refusing to get carried away with the win.

“There’s a lot of work to be done this year. But a win is a win,” Kluck said.

So what’s changed for the Mountaineers this year? Well, they’ve added experienced American imports Rashad Chase and James Legan to the line-up.

But more than that – they’re finally playing out the entire game.

“In the past, we had some good runs in the early periods of the game or late on, but then everyone’s had a bit of a brain freeze,” Kluck said.

“The biggest thing we’ve got to do is hold our heads and control games to the end.”

The crowd at Sunday’s game was the biggest Kluck can remember since joining the team and he said the players really fed off the support.

“It was good to give them the win and something to finally cheer about,” Kluck said.

“We’ve got a pretty talented team. A lot of our new players have brought more experience.

“Plus we’re just sick of losing so everyone has been working really hard in pre-season.”

For the first time in a long time, Toowoomba is sitting inside the QBL top eight and while they’ve only played one game, Kluck is confident the team can stay there.

“Our goal is to beat everybody,” he said.

“It’s our first season together and a lot of the guys in the team haven’t run together.

“This team has got potential.”