The San Quentin Kings basketball team for 40 and older men defeated the outside basketball team called the Sports Ministry in their season opener 83-82 in overtime, which was in a nail-biter.
The Sports Ministry was trailing by 18 points at halftime. However, they made an unbelievable comeback, tying the game in the closing seconds of the contest with an assist from Andrew Strong to Danny Sullivan, sending the game into overtime.
“It’s a great experience bringing joy to peoples lives and having fun…”
In overtime, Paul Robinson made an assist to Sean Pierce and then Pierce returned to make two foul shots, giving the Kings an 80-76 lead.
The Sports Ministry came back as Strong made a layup and Sullivan returned to knock down a three-pointer off a screen, giving the visitors their first lead at 81-80.
Then both teams’ only points came off free throws as Strong made one free throw to tie the game at 82-82
In the closing seconds, Robinson sank a clutch foul shot for the game winner.
Going into the second half, Sullivan contributed to their comeback as he hit a jumper and a three-pointer. He later drove for a layup and hit a three-pointer, cutting into the deficit to 46-40.
After Robinson’s layup, Kurt Thomas hit a baseline jumper to increase the Kings’ lead to 50-40. The Kings pulled away as Robinson, Pierce, E. Quinn and Brian Asey each made layups.
Sports Ministry was down by 19 points at 70-51. They began cutting into the Kings lead by making five three-pointers, two jump shots, two free throws and two layups, sending the game into overtime. However, they struggled to score in overtime as the Kings won by a single Robinson free throw.
After the game, Robinson said, “I feel good about our first game because we got to see how our team developed. In overtime, once we got settled, I knew we were going to pull it out.”
Robinson finished as the leading scorer for the Kings with 26 points.
“It’s a great experience bringing joy to peoples lives and having fun. We got down early, got it into overtime, and unfortunately we lost,” said Sullivan, who described his experience in playing the Kings.
Sullivan, a former Arizona State University football player, had a game high 29 points.
