Martin boys’ varsity basketball coach Brad Moelker had to wonder how his guys would respond to the sting of their first loss of the season last week. They passed the test with flying colors by taking it to Gobles 62-35 Friday night.
“I thought we worked very hard on the defensive end,” Moelker said. “Our entire team did a pretty good job of communicating in our half court defense. It allowed us to rotate and be where we needed to be.”
Indeed, the Clippers held their guests to just six points in the first quarter, 16 at the half and 24 after three periods.
“I think just overall we are started to play a smarter game,” the coach said. “Our guys always work hard but they are much more dangerous when they play hard and smart.”
Marin was playing without sophomore Collin Coborn, who has spent the week laid up with bronchitis. But it welcomed sophomore Mitchell Jager, who finally returned after breaking his foot. The coach said he played well on the defensive end and picked up some huge rebounds.
“The first half we really had some nice rebounding that allowed us to get out and run.,” Moeller said. “Cayden (Curry) did a nice job of pushing the ball up and attacking before their defense was set.
“Offensively I think this was the best game that we have had in terms of not settling for shots. We did hit six threes but the majority of our plays came from the inside.”
Curry and guard Clayton Geerlings shared scoring honors with 17 points apiece. Carter Hilton scored all eight of his points in the first half. Jake Getman scored all of his nine points on three threes for the Tigers.
Guard Alex Hardy came off the bench in the second quarter and provided a spark with five points, a couple of steals that led to easy baskets and five rebounds.
“We had a great overall team performance,” Moeller commented. “It’s easy to look up and down the roster and find something that each player did well tonight.
“We are continuing to grow and it showed in how we learned from our loss last Friday. Now we have to keep learning from our wins as well.”
Martin now is 8-1 on the season overall and Gobles fell to 4-6 with the defeat.
COVER PHOTO: It was Snowcoming at Martin Friday and crowned queen and king were Amber Genson and Guillaume Caupain.