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She's making a point very quickly

Crystal Anthony is a freshman at a demanding spot, but it's old hat.

By VINCENT THOMAS
Published December 20, 2005

Here's something you don't see very often when you watch a girls basketball game in Hernando County: one girl, running the show.

Not one who brings the ball up the court, then a series of events take place leading to some sort of shot, but someone actually orchestrating the offense.

You see it, though, when Nature Coast plays.

Crystal Anthony is out there playing the most difficult and responsibility-driven position on the court - point guard - and she's doing it as a freshman.

Not a novice, though. This is apparent watching her find a teammate alone under the basket for an easy layup, or hitting another teammate with a no-look bounce pass on the fast break, or giving a head fake and driving into the lane for a little floater.

"I've been playing for seven or eight years now," Anthony said Dec.6 after Nature Coast finished a decisive victory over Zephyrhills. Outside of a brief rest on the bench, her coach, Jason Montgomery, kept Anthony on the court for most of the game as the rest of her teammates shuffled on and off the bench's musical chairs.

If Anthony seems comfortable running a squad, it's because she has been playing point guard for as long as she has played basketball, which began as a pre-teen playing in co-ed YMCA youth leagues.

"I was always the short girl, so they kind of just stuck me at point guard," she said.

Point guards are the basketball equivalent of football's quarterbacks. With a good point guard, a team's offense won't resemble chaos. If a squad's offense is running smoothly, it's usually because the point guard is making the right decisions.

Anthony, as young as she is, doesn't always make the right pass. She doesn't always slow the tempo when the Sharks are unraveling or push the ball when the squad needs a spark. Call her precocious, but she's still learning.

Earlier this season Montgomery wondered if, sometimes, he was a little too hard on his freshman general, a little too exacting. He tries to be careful, knowing he's dealing with a young and, at times, fragile psyche.

In the Zephyrhills game, Anthony raced up the court with seconds left in the first half. Instead of heaving a 40-foot prayer, she tried to get the ball to a teammate that had a closer shot. Time ran out, though.

Montgomery, walking on egg shells, approached Anthony with his fists near his mouth, wincing. "You've got to shoot that, Crystal," he said. Anthony didn't make eye contact with him or respond.

"Yeah, he's pretty hard on me," Anthony said. "But he understands that I'm a freshman and he makes it clear that it's all in love."

--Vincent Thomas can be reached at vthomas@sptimes.com or 352 848-1430.

[Last modified December 20, 2005, 01:50:22]