Martin had offensive lapses in the first and third quarters Tuesday night and absorbed a 50-44 defeat at the hands of Delton.

The loss dropped the Clippers to 5-3 but they remain 3-0 in their division in the Southwest Athletic Conference.

Delton shot out to a 12-7 lead at the end of the first period, before Martin awakened on an 18-7 run in the second to mount a 25-19 advantage at halftime.The Clippers then went into their second offensive swoon of the evening, on the short end of a 19-5 count in the third quarter and had to overcome a 38-30 deficit to start the final eight minutes.

“We got off to a very slow start again tonight,” said coach David Curry. “I’m not sure why, but it’s something we need to get fixed. Delton came out and put us in a hole right out of the gate tonight.

The Panthers went on a 12-0 run right at the start of the game.

“We called timeout at the 8-0 mark to try to get things going and still let them get two more buckets before we got on the board,” Curry said. “We then scored seven straight to finish the quarter down five. It was back and forth at the beginning of the second with neither team being able to score until we broke the ice to get it to within three. ”

Delton hit a two and Martin countered it and then we a three and followed it with a two to knot the game at 14. The Clippers held them at 12 for a long time, giving them the opportunity to catch the Panthers about midway through the second quarter and later take a six-point lead into halftime.

Delton’s Cogan McCoy nailed a three to start the third period to pull within three and it was back and forth from there until the Panthers were able to tie it up at 30 about halfway through the third quarter. Then they used an 8-0 burst to finish the quarter, featuring two more threes by McCoy.

Martin trailed by as many as ten in the final quarter, but  pulled to within two late in the ballgame.

“We were not able to make our shots on the offensive end and had to start fouling,” Curry explained. “They scored off a turnover and made two free throws late to seal the win.

“It was a very good game with two evenly matched teams,” the coach observed. “We weathered the runs they made throughout the game and were able to battle back each time. That shows the character our kids have. We just came up a little short tonight. It came down to needing to be a little more composed down the stretch and pushing the pace in the final minutes. We didn’t play with enough urgency late in the game and it ended up biting us.

“I’m very proud of the fight the kids had in them. They never quit playing until the final buzzer and hopefully we can learn from this loss and be better in the long run.”

Tanner Curry again led the Clippers with 22 points, Carter Hilton added seven and Andrew Boss six. Hilton had half a dozen rebounds and Tanner and Cayden Curry and Canton VandenBerg each had five. Tanner Curry dished out five assists.
Martin will travel to Bloomingdale Friday for another SAC divisional game.