Cunen and Chichicastenango

The weekend brought the first roadtrip of our adventure and we traveled about four hours by bus to the mountain town Cunen in Quiche state.

Surrounded by mountains and next the Catholic church in the center of the town, the outdoor court in Cunen has to have been one of the prettiest settings for a basketball game the Knights have ever had the opportunity to experience.

With the sun setting over the mountains, the Young Guns took the court first. Our readers will have to forgive Stat Girl for not having a complete report from the Young Guns game (although all the stats are correct) because we spent most of the boys game trying to fix the clock/scoreboard. Luckily for us, Cunen's very own MacGuyver was able to fix with with some first aid tape (and gum wrapper of course). The final score was Young Guns 56 and Cunen 48.

Devonte: 7 points/ 1 assist/ 4 rebounds
Elvis: 9 points/ 2 rebounds
Nate: 10 points/ 2 assists/ 5 rebounds
Jamal: 2 points/ 5 rebounds
Malik: 8 points/9 rebounds
Jerren: 2 points/ 5 assists/ 5 rebounds
Diggs: 10 points/ 4 rebounds
Mit'hat: 8 points/ 7 rebounds

The Las Chicas game (and yes, it's odd to say The Las) started with a lot of discussion about whether or not the game should be for 8 or 10 minute quarters. Cunen decided on 10 minute quarters and by the time the game ended with a 50-27 victory for Las Chicas, we suspect the Cunen team may have regretted that decision.

Tyler: 19 points/ 2 assists/ 8 rebounds
Jordyn: 15 points/ 4 assists
Alexis: 1 assist/ 6 rebounds
KK: 10 points/ 1 assist/ 1 rebound
Breezy (2 points)/ 3 assists/ 1 rebound
Chanae: 4 points/ 3 rebounds
Imani: 2 points/ 1 assist/ 9 rebounds
Carla: 1 assist/ 3 rebounds

By the time the Old Heads game rolled around the court was under the lights--okay, so half the court was under the lights, the other half, not-so-much. It was pretty obvious early on that the Knights had things under control, especially when it was 45-10 at the half. The large lead gave the Old Heads an opportunity to get creative including several crowd-pleasing dunks by Aniekan "Oh My Aching Back" Udofia. It also gave Nate an opportunity to make his debut with the Old Heads (and score a bucket). In the end, it was 89-32 in favor of the Knights.

Bryan: 6 points/ 8 assists/ 4 rebounds
Sam: 7 points/ 2 assists/ 5 rebounds
Stan: 19 points/ 2 assists/ 4 rebounds
Jerrod: 21 points/ 4 assists/ 4 rebounds
Shaq: 13 points/ 8 rebounds
Mit'hat: 3 points/ 1 assist
Diggs: 5 rebounds
Aniekan: 19 points/ 3 assists/ 7 rebounds
Nate: 2 points

After the game, everyone headed to a local restaurant--the only one in town-- for dinner by candlelight, which was courtesy of a blown transformer. Our small hotel, of which we were fortunately the only guests, took on a freshman dorm atmosphere with lots of tall tales and farting...good times.

On Sunday, half of the group went on a hike to some local caves and waterfalls. The report from the field is that it was the most beautiful and amazing thing that some of the students had ever seen.

Around mid-day we boarded the bus to Chichicastenango. We were scheduled to play three games in Chichi beginning at 8 p.m., but the consensus on the bus was that people weren't really up for three more games at that hour, so we canceled the games and most likely saved American-Guatemalan relations for at least another week. We still stopped in Chichi to visit the market and try our hands at bartering for goods, but we were home in Xela before our first game was scheduled to start and in theory for everyone to get a good night sleep before Monday classes.