After three winters of rec-league basketball, Quin made his first start Saturday in a game in which score was actually kept on a scoreboard, wins and losses were tracked in official standings and coach’s lineups weren’t prioritized by equal playing time for all.
As for the score part, Quin’s South Anchorage Raptors only scored one point on a technicality, which means his team didn’t manage to put the ball in the basket once against the AK Elite Orange squad. The Orange put the ball in the hoop many times and used a swarming defense that the Raptors were not prepared to face. The final score is listed online as 8-1, but it was more like 38-1.
Despite the final result, there was plenty of good to report. The Raptors played hard and hustled from start to finish, while playing tough defense and rebounding at a decent skill level. Quin even started showing signs of anticipation and was disrupting passing lanes well. There were very few decent shots attempted by the Raptors (Quin got two good looks), due to an inability to secure the ball consistently and move the ball into open space. Most Raptors’ possessions ended with a steal by the Orange.
The comp league consists of nine teams full of third and fourth graders. Quin, who is nine, is in third grade, but is one of the tallest kids on the court. He missed his team’s first game, so the season is two weeks old. Early results indicate there are three good teams: AK Elite Orange, AK Elite Black and a team simply listed as GBD.
Quin’s next game is Saturday, against the Tar Heels, a team that hasn’t scored a total of 20 points in three losses. So, the Raptors will go from facing one of the best teams in the league to one of the worst.
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