by Jon M. Gambee, Martin Bureau Chief
Martin captured its fir
st league boys’ basketball championship in 20 years Friday by handily defeating Bloomingdale, 66-43.
As had been its penchant this season, Martin took a while to get going and trailed in the first minutes of the first quarter. But Coach David Curry, as he has throughout this special season, rallied his troops and they tied the score at 10 apiece at the end of the first eight minutes.
It was the second quarter that decided the contest, as the Clippers outscored Bloomingdale by 17 to take a commanding 33-16 lead into the locker room.
It was 36-28 at the end of three.
Tanner Curry had another double-double for Martin, finishing with 28 points and 16 rebounds. Garrett Dill scored 11. In all, 10 Clippers scored in the contest. Others included Ben Moored and Carter Hilton, each with six and Andrew Keyzer with five.
“We got off to a slow start once again tonight and found ourselves trailing early,” Curry said. “We were able to fight back and tie it up by the end of the first. The second quarter was a different story as we outscored them by 17 to take a commanding lead into the locker room.
“To start the game, we just were not attacking offensively and it showed. After the first quarter we let the kids know that we couldn’t be effective if we stood on the perimeter and passed the ball around. We came out with a totally different attitude and were able to put some distance on them.
“We played well in the second half, kept our composure as they tried to apply pressure in the back court and finished strong in the fourth.
“We were able to get everybody in the game again tonight and everybody did a great job of handling the pressure. Bloomingdale was pressing us full court pretty much the entire second half and we walked through it time after time and was able to get good looks at the other end.
“With the win tonight, we locked up sole possession of the league championship by pushing our division record to 9-0. We have not been league champs in 20 years. The win puts us at 13-5 overall.
Martin will be host to Schoolcraft Tuesday and finish up the regular season by hosting Marcellus Friday for “Seniors Night.”