Stats for Sat. Feb 17th

4 Fouls, 3 Steals, 3 Blocks, 14 Rebounds, 22 Assists, and 5,348,792 points in 92 minutes played.

Oh, and one tackle.

Those are very rough estimates, but should be close. We played BBall with the same boys yesterday morning. And yes, again, they wanted to meet at 8:30. Incredible. But this week was a little better in that they brought more people and we had Crack back, so we had a full court, five on five game going on. It really felt good to run. And we did some running. It became clear to us that if we would just run the court that we could get some easy baskets and wear down the older guys on the opposing team. It worked. I still say we won the game, though the Turkish scoring system seems to be a little off at times, if you know what I mean. It was in this first game that I had a chance to dunk it. I mean, the chance was there, just not the ability. Also, I had a nasty block. I was caught on the short end of a two on one, but it takes more than superior numbers to frighten me. The ball handler drove and went for the lay up. The ball never left his hand. Nothing is more fulfilling than rejecting a shot in basketball. The final game is when I did my scoring, stealing, and tackling. The guy I was guarding was a little reckless with his dribbling and allowed me to take it from him a couple times. He also didn't play a whole lot of defense, leaving me open around the free throw line on numerous occassions. I wish I could say I shot a high percentage, but I'm still working to get the J back. I did knock down a fair number of them though, and probably was among the scoring leaders. The tackle came on a loose ball. It was rolling towards half court and me and their biggest player were running neck and neck trying to get to it. There was a little bumping, trading of paint for all you NASCAR fans. I started to lose my footing, but instead of just giving him the ball and a man advantage, I decided to slide on the ground and grab it. I knew it'd be traveling and that I'd end up out of bounds anyways, but it was better than giving him the ball with me sprawled out on the ground at half court. So I hit the deck and apparently the big man isn't agile enough to avoid a 6'3" guy doing a perfect slide into second and keep his balance at the same time. He ate it, but, thankfully, was okay. Thankfully because even on a broken ankle, he would've been a hand full in a fight. All in all it was my best performance of my budding Turkish basketball career.

I haven't been feeling good physically the last two days, so if you could, just say a quick prayer for that. But if you're going to take the time to pray for me, I'd rather you take a few minutes and pray for a friend of mine who is also sick, and much worse so than me. It is hindering God's work in another country and needs a lot of prayer. Thank you.