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Terry Turner Athlete of the Week

The Scranton High School senior scored 16 points, had four rebounds, four assists and three steals to earn MVP honors in a 68-49 win over Dunmore in the final of the 61st Lynett Memorial Basketball Tournament. In two tourney games, Turner scored 41, had 11 rebounds, seven assists, seven steals and four blocked shots. Age: 18

Family: Mother, Felicia; father, Terry; sisters Alicia, Nashira and Terika.

Sports teams you follow: I love the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Athletes you admire: Kevin Durant. I like the way he plays. He makes his teammates better, and that’s what I always want to do, make everybody around me work harder. And I like the way he does that.

Winning the Lynett tournament and being named the MVP, what does that mean to you? It means a lot to me to be recognized as MVP in such a big tournament, and the games were intense and good.

Is this just a stepping stone for your goals for the season? The goals are to get better every day and play hard, keep the intensity up, work hard and win.

What’s the one thing that people are going to view differently in your game from last season to this season? Definitely my defense and my post game. I’ve been working on my offensive moves in the post and getting my footwork together. Defensively in the post, clearing my man out, boxing him out, all the little things. That’s what counts.

As a team, we are hearing that Scranton is playing a better brand of defense. Is that something you need to do if you want to be a serious contender on a state level? We definitely are coming together. We sat around talking about it because we know the offense is there, but defense is really what wins games. We just wanted to go out there and concentrate on defense because defense is what makes the offense go.

It’s only a day into January, but do you guys have aspirations of playing deep into March? We definitely do. I think everybody should. We’re going to play each game, one at a time, and see where it takes us.

What’s the most fun thing about game night? You get that feeling of excitement. It’s like you’re anxious to play, and once it happens, you get so fired up and it’s good to see everyone around you fired up and just as pumped up as you are.

Is there an emotional letdown after a game, or after a tournament win like this? It’s really not a letdown because you keep using that as momentum to keep going to the next game, the next practice, to work harder, to see what you didn’t do in that game and work on it in practice so you can do it the next game.

Which part of the game do you want to be remembered for when your high school career is over? Just that I made everyone around me good, that I made them work harder to make them great players.

What’s the best part of your game right now? I think it’s shooting or defense. I put up a lot of shots this summer and I worked hard on my defense.

What’s the key to being a good defender? Just knowing what your guy is going to do before he does. Just anticipating.

You have quite a collection of hats. Talk about them. I love hats. I have over 100. Every time I see a hat I want I just get it. It’s like a problem that I have to get it. I keep them organized. I have a hat rack. I keep them nice and neat.

What’s the best hat in the collection? It’s the 1995 Final Four hat. It’s my favorite hat. It has all the logos on it, Arkansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma State and UCLA.

How about three people you’d like to have dinner with? One of my best friends, John Rogan, who died, Mike Marichak and Dennis Rodman.

Have you decided what you would like to study in college? I love history, but I like helping people, too. It’s really a hard decision to make right now. I don’t know which path I’d like to follow. In its 62nd season, ATHLETE OF THE WEEK appears every Monday in The Times-tribune. A radio interview with Turner airs today at 5:20 p.m. during “In the Zone” with Joby Fawcett on ESPN Radio 630 and 1240 AM and 96.1 FM.