Defender’s play helps Kewps win

Hickman senior Cray Logan loves to play basketball.

So when his coach, Kenny Ash, sat down with Logan about a month and a half ago to tell him what he needed to do to get more playing time, Logan listened.

“Coach told me that if I want to play, I need to be able to play great defense against anybody,” Logan said. “Because I’m not great at executing on offense, he said I was going to have to be able to defend guards as well as down in the post.”

After hearing this, Logan started working “as hard as he could” on his defense, which has resulted in increased playing time.

Logan’s defensive intensity allowed his coach to keep him in the game during the critical final few minutes of Hickman’s 64-55 win over the visiting Wentzville Holt Indians (8-15) on Saturday, even though he had only scored two points during the contest.

With the win, the Kewpies improved to 13-11.

“Logan is a hard-working, blue-collar leader on this team,” Ash said. “He is a role-player that got a great opportunity to play tonight and he made the most of it.”

Logan also realizes what his role on the team is.

“I definitely see myself as a leader on this team,” Logan said. “But when I get in the game, my role is to play defense as hard as I can and rebound the ball.”

As Logan walked off of his home court in the Kewpies’ final home game of the season, he realized that a chapter in his life as a basketball player had just ended.

“If I could give up all the games I ever played to just play one more home game here, I would,” Logan said. “Everything was so great here, my teammates, the coaches, all the fans, just everything. Every day I spent here is now a great memory for me.”

Logan’s love for the game of basketball began when he was just two years old, when he used to play with his father.

When he was 6, his dad started a 3-on-3 league so Logan would be able to start playing organized basketball.

“As soon I started playing the game, I fell in love with it,” Logan said. “Whenever I wake up, basketball is usually the first thing that I think about.”

Logan isn’t sure where he will be attending school next year, but he hopes to be playing basketball somewhere.

“I’m hoping to walk onto a junior college team somewhere,” Logan said. “I really want to keep playing the game. If that doesn’t work out, maybe I’ll try to get into coaching. I just know I definitely want to be involved with the game somehow.”