Martin overcame a 12-point deficit in the fourth quarter Thursday and came away with 70-69 buzzer beating victory over Marcellus.
The Clippers finished the regular season with an 11-9 record overall and 8-2 in their division in the Southwest Athletic Conference.
“We ended the season just as we started, with a buzzer beater win,” coach David Curry noted, referring to his team’s season-opening triumph over Saugatuck on a buzzer beater by point guard Matt MacVean.
Martin played the game from behind through most of the night. Down by a dozen to begin the last eight minutes, it got a three-point field goal from senior center Tanner Curry, but once again Marcellus answered with one of its own. The Clippers then got a two and a three from Tanner, and a three from Cayden Curry to get to within four, then went on a 9-4 run to set up another barn burner to close out the season the way they started.
Martin, up one with about 40 seconds left in the game turned over the ball over after a Marcellus foul. The Wildcats then went down and were able to score to take a one-point lead in the closing seconds.
The Clippers turned it over again and then fouled to put Marcellus at the free throw line. They missed on the front end of the one-and-one and senior guard-forward Andrew Boss was able to come away with the rebound.
“We crossed half court and got the ball in Tanner’s hands with six seconds remaining. Everybody cleared and Tanner put a spin move on the defender and was able to get a roller to fall in as time expired to give us the win.”
Martin was down 7-0 in the opening period before dropping in four free throws from Colin Warner and Carter Hilton. Then Marcellus went on a 14-5 run to finish the quarter up by a 21-9 margin. Twelve of the Wildcats’ 21 points came from threes.
The Clippers scored the first five points of the second quarter to get within seven before Marcellus hit another three to go up 10. But the Cliipers outscored them 18-11 to finish the quarter to trail by three at the intermission.
Marcellus came out in the third with a barage of three pointers and was able to build a 12-point lead going into the final quarter. The Wildcats made 6 threes along with shooting 7 of 9 from the charity stripe for a 25-point third quarter.
“I thought overall we played well,” Curry said. “Marcellus shot the lights out tonight without a doubt. They ended up finishing the game 13 of 24 from behind the arc. We continued to plug away and turned up our defensive pressure and offensive pace to get us into a position to win the game.
“Our defense was outstanding in the fourth and our rebounding matched it. That along with great decisions on the offensive end ended up being the difference in the game. The grit and determination the kids had tonight was some of the best I’ve seen all year.”
Tanner Curry paced the attack with 28 points in his last regular season game of his four-year career. He also gathered 14 rebounds and six assists to finish his career with more than 1,000 points and 1,000 rebounds, sort of a career double-double.
MacVean, also a senior, finished with 14 points, freshman Cayden Curry added a dozen points and Boss came up with seven rebounds.
Martin will open district tournament play at 7 p.m. Monday against Battle Creek Calhoun Christian at Battle Creek St. Phillip.
PHOTO: Andrew Boss (1) had seven rebounds and Carter Hilton (51) had seven points in the regular season finale for Martin.