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player ready...Whiting’s Alyssa Quinones is playing with a measure of freedom.
The 5-foot-3 guard tweaked her approach as a senior.
“I’ve always struggled with confidence,” Quinones said. “So this year I’ve been trying to focus on, like, ‘I may never play this game again, so why not just go all out my last season?'”
Quinones would welcome the opportunity to play in college, but she isn’t banking on it. She plans to major in kinesiology with an eye on becoming an athletic trainer, possibly at the Division I level.
“I’d get to watch the game I love,” she said.
For now, Quinones is embracing being in the thick of competing in that game, and her attitude has translated into results. She is averaging a team-high 14.1 points, 3.7 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 3.7 steals for the Oilers (5-11).
“Games are won and lost with her,” Whiting coach Arthur Young said. “She’s our leader, emotionally as well as physically. She’s our go-getter. The girls have confidence when she’s feeling confident, and when she’s down, we’re down. That’s one thing I’ve talked with her about and worked with her. In the past, when she’s gotten frustrated, she can’t show that because she’s the leader. Everybody’s looking to her.
“She’s done a really good job this year of not being frustrated — and, when she is, verbalizing to her teammates she needs support and what she needs from them. That’s been the biggest change I’ve seen from last year, my first season, to this year, is she’s able to be that mature leader that we need.”
Senior forward/center Torie Davis agreed the Oilers rely considerably upon Quinones.
“She’s a major leader,” Davis said. “She likes to push everybody. She’s always positive. When she corrects somebody, when something’s wrong or somebody’s down, she brings them up.
“She’s able to read the defense. She’s able to move the ball. She can shoot. She really just has a lot of court awareness.”
Quinones, who averaged a team-high 11.4 points last season, spent her freshman year at South Shore in Chicago, where she split time between the varsity and junior varsity teams. She transferred back to the Region as a sophomore. She said she played one quarter on Whiting’s JV team before she earned a starting spot in the varsity lineup.
Quinones already had strong ties to the program. Her brother Victor Jr. also was a standout guard and paced the Oilers with 13.1 points, 4.3 assists and 2.8 steals as a senior in 2017.
“Growing up, I was at every game with my dad, and I just wanted to be like my older brother,” Alyssa Quinones said. “He always set a good example. I always even went to his practices and was dribbling on the side. I just liked the game. It always intrigued me more than just sitting there.”
Alyssa Quinones also credited her father, Victor Sr.
“He’s been my rock,” she said. “He’s my best friend. He gets me going for basketball. When I have a hard game, he helps me work up from it and lets me know it’s part of the game.”
Alyssa Quinones made significant strides in that area over the summer. She said she “had a hard time shooting” during the AAU season. But she worked on putting up extra shots and not harping on her “slump,” from which she emerged for the Oilers.
“It all comes together when you have the right mind,” Quinones said.
Young recalled the aftermath of one particular instance.
“She had a bad AAU game, and she sent me a little text and said, ‘Hey, coach, I need to get some shots up,'” Young said. “We came in, and she was all distraught about it. But we got some shots up, and I let her know, if your mind’s wrong, your shot’s going to be wrong.
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“Shooters have short-term memories, so if you miss one, you miss two, the next one’s going in. That’s the mentality, and she’s starting to pick that up. This is the last go-around, and she can’t be too emotional over one game and let it linger. She has to be ready to go for the next one, and that’s what she’s been doing.”