Martin coach Brad Moelker admitted he’s been a bit worried about his team getting rusty lately because of the inclement weather. But his group Friday night, playing in only its third contest since the holiday break, took care of Saugatuck 55-42.
“It felt good to get on the court,” Moelker said. “We only had two practices in last two weeks and haven’t had any practice in last eight days.”
The Clipper started well, regardless, taking a 19-8 advantage at the end of the first quarter, with seven different players breaking into the scoring column in the first eight minutes.
But Martin outscored the visitors by only two points the rest of the evening.
“The first quarter gave us some breathing room and after that we just had to weather the storm, as we got tired,” the coach explained. “As expected, the rest of the game was a bit sloppy. As we got tired, we played a bit lazy, but our substitutions really picked us up when we needed it. It’s nice to have faith in your team top to bottom.
“We managed to control the game with our pace. We pushed when it was there and played slow at other times.”
Moelker made special mention of guard Cayden Curry for taking control of the floor game early, attacking the rim and not settling for shots.
Curry led the winners by netting 14 points. Michael Morey added nine points, Carter Hilton eight and sophomore Collin Coburn, returning from a recent bout with bronchitis, dropped in six, as did Alex Hardy.
Nine different Martin players scored.
“Overall I thought we played a good game for three quarters,” the coach said. “We made some mistakes in the fourth that were just caused by not being in the gym practicing this past week.”
Martin, now 10-1 overall for the season, will have a three-game week Feb. 4-8. The Clippers will play Monday at Coloma and Tuesday at Michigan Lutheran before returning to home court next Friday against Watervliet.
COVER PHOTO: Collin Coburn returned to the lineup and scored six points for Martin.
