The Surrey Scorchers’ play-caller has had to take a temporary leave of absence to deal with an urgent family matter and assistant coach Crane has been put in temporary charge until Raftopoulos is able to return.
The Guildford-based side managed to win one for the boss on opening night Friday, with a hard-fought 81-78 victory at Sheffield Sharks.
“It’s amazing, absolutely amazing and it still really hasn’t sunk in,” said a delighted Crane about his first win.
He added: “Early last week, Creon said he had to go, so the prep started then.
“All week we’ve just been working on it, carrying out what he set [up] in practice.
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“It was a little bit daunting at first but everybody has helped me.
“Coach Creon had so much prep in place, it made my life a lot easier.”
Having trailed for the majority of the first half, the Scorchers made their move in the second, pushing out to a double-digit lead late in the third quarter.
Sharks mounted a comeback and cut the deficit to three points in the final minute of the game, but Surrey did just enough to hang on for a deserved victory, after a frantic finale.
“It was definitely a team effort,” insisted Crane.
“It was at times challenging to do what we wanted to do but once we calmed down and got a bit more sensible, it started to work out for us.”
While the Scorchers were unable to make it a double-winning weekend, going down 93-78 away at London Lions on Sunday, Crane was still eager to devote Friday’s success to Raftopoulos.
“This one is definitely for Creon, it’s all for coach,” he stressed.