Crown Point boys basketball coach Clint Swan knows what he has in Quinn Begley.
The 6-foot-4 forward is the only senior in a starting lineup that features four talented juniors, and he’s one of the Bulldogs’ captains. So even though Begley isn’t a high-profile player like several of his teammates, Swan doesn’t take him for granted.
“He gets overshadowed a lot,” Swan said. “He’s our fifth-leading scorer, and on 90% of the teams in the state, he’d be the leading scorer.
“He’s extremely athletic. He can shoot the ball. He’s somebody who poses a lot of matchup problems for other teams because with his athleticism comes versatility. If it’s a bigger, slower guy, he’s able to step out. If it’s a smaller guy, he understands playing in the post and scoring inside. He does a lot of good things for us.”
Begley, a first-year starter, is averaging 7.5 points and 5.0 rebounds as the Bulldogs (21-2) prepare to play Duneland Athletic Conference rival Portage (20-5) in the Class 4A Michigan City Regional on Saturday. Crown Point and Portage shared the DAC title, with the Indians knocking off the Bulldogs 64-40 on Feb. 6.
Begley and the Bulldogs are eager to try to reverse that result.
“I’m just trying to get my teammates more shots,” Begley said. “I’m never worried if I score. I’m just worried about the score at the end. I just want to win.
“I contribute most of the big man work. I’m not the tallest dude on the team, but I love to fight. I just love to win. I’ll do anything it takes to win. I’ll guard their best player — I don’t care.”
Crown Point won a regional title last season, when Begley averaged 2.6 points and 2.8 rebounds. That’s when the light began to turn on for him.
“The second half of last year was when we started seeing, like, ‘Oh, wow, we think we have something here. He’s going to be a pretty good player for us,’” Swan said. “He’s just grown as a player.
“Quinn’s temperament and his demeanor, he’s just so calm. I’ve rarely, if ever, seen him get emotional or lose his faculties out there. He’s always just steady as they go. It helps when you have a young team.”
Begley also excels in track and field. He qualified for the state meet in the high jump last year.
“There’s a lot of pressure and expectations in track,” he said. “I went to state last year, and that means I have to do it again. Everyone is saying I’m going to break the school record in the high jump, and there’s just a lot of expectations. There are expectations in basketball too.”
Begley comes from an athletic family. His oldest brother Cael, a 2020 Crown Point graduate, was an offensive lineman in football and a thrower in track, and he played a season of football at both Butler and Wabash before he graduated from Indiana.
Begley’s older brother Liam, a 2022 Crown Point graduate, was a linebacker, wrestler and thrower. He was wrestling at Marian but has been dealing with torn labrums in both shoulders.
Begley’s mother Patty, a kindergarten teacher in the district, had a standout running career at Ball State after starring at Portage. Begley’s father Sean, a longtime school administrator in the Region, wrestled at The Citadel.
But Begley has decided to go in a different direction in college. He intends to study biology at Indiana and then go to medical school.
“I’m done with sports,” he said. “They all went the sports route. I went the medical route.”
Crown Point forward Kolby Henderlong, the only other senior on the roster and a captain along with Begley, junior guard/forward Dikembe Shaw and junior guard Kingston Rhodes, appreciates what Begley brings to the team.
Henderlong pointed to a sequence during Crown Point’s sectional-opening victory against Morton as an example of Begley’s value. Begley tipped the ball away, dove on it and then called a timeout, and the Bulldogs scored on the ensuing possession to extend their lead.
“He’s definitely the best rebounder on the team,” Henderlong said. “He’s definitely the glue in the paint. He’s making sure guys are down low on defense guarding the big men, making sure we’re all rotating and communicating. He’s always on the loose balls — he’s probably leading us in loose balls this year.”
