Martin saw its record fall to 3-2 with a 52-47 loss to Howardsville in the Holland Calvary Invitational Baketball Tournament Wednesday.

Howardsville jumped out to a 20-13 lead in the first quarter and led 30-25 at the half. Martin came back in the third quarter and actually led 39-37 going into the final eight minutes. But a late rally by Howardsville spelled doom for the Clippers.

“Tonight we went back to our old habit of opening the game with a slow start,” said Clippers’ coach Dave Curry. “Being down seven after the first quarter is a tough hole to climb out of against a team that shoots as well as Howardsville.

“I thought we executed our defensive game plan well. We had a few hiccups, but they didn’t seem to hurt us too bad. We struggled offensively tonight mostly due to lack of movement. Kind of fell back to our old habits of being content with the ball on the perimeter. We didn’t attack as much as we typically do and therefore were settling on shots we don’t normally take.”

Garrett Dill led Martin with 15 points. Tanner Curry was the only other Clipper in double figures, finishing with another double double, 13 points and 17 rebounds. Ben Moored was next with 6.

“We had our shot at the end to tie and missed,” Curry said, “then we had to foul to get the ball back. We were within three with seven seconds left and ended up turning the ball over.

“We then gambled on the in-bounds and they got an easy one at the end to beat us by five.

“Two key factors were free throws and turnovers,” Curry added. “We turned the ball over 10 times more than they did. The thing that really sticks out though is they shot 25 free throws to our eight. That’s a tough one for me to swallow.”