Marcellus scared the daylights out of Martin in Friday’s Southwestern Athletic Conference basketball battle, at least for three and a half periods.
The Wildcats brought an 8-2 record to Martin, 3-0 in the SAC, and they appeared to have the Clippers on the ropes until midway in the fourth quarter. But senior guard Matt MacVean drilled a three-pointer from the top of the key with 3:48 remaining and he and his teammates were never headed afterward. And they got a big lift from a couple of technical fouls on Marcellus and accurate free throw shooting from senior center Tanner Curry, who swished eight attempts in a row at one point.
Martin improved its overall season record to 7-4 and it has lost only once in its SAC Division, to Bloomingdale, which Marcellus beat earlier this season.
The lead see-sawed between the two teams in the fourth period until MacVean’s triple opened up a 41-37 advantage for the home team. He then scored on a fast-break layup to widen the gap to six. It wasn’t long afterward that the wheels came off for Marcellus.
Despite gamely battling back, Mattawan’s top scorer, Brandon Clark, fouled out with 1:12 left on the clock. Curry then alertly found sophomore Carter Hilton under the hoop for an easy layup off an in-bounds pass to make it 47-40. That’s when the Wildcats’ coach called a timeout to chew out the referees and he earned a technical. Curry obliged by making both of his free throws to widen the cushion to nine, 49-40 with a minute to go.
It was over.
Marcellus fell behind by as many as 10 points early in the second quarter, 18-8, but found a way to slowly get back into the thick of it. The key was switching to a 2-3 zone defense that clustered around the hoop to keep Curry away from the basket and to dare Martin to shoot threes. If there was a weakness for the Clippers Friday, it was from three-point range.
Martin was clinging to a 25-18 lead at intermission and then scored only five points against that Wildcats’ zone in the entire third quarter, allowing them to climb past the home team, 31-30, at the start of the fourth period.
After MacVean nailed the clutch three, the Clippers outgunned Marcellus 12-5 in the final 3:48.
Curry finished with 18 points, MacVean tallied 17 and Hilton 10. Clark finished with 13 points, but southpaw Trevor Henry led his team with 14.
PHOTOS: (From left) Honored as newest inductees into the Martin Athletic Hall of Fame at halftime of the ballgame were Pat McLaughlin, former school board member, Rocket football coach, athletic booster and keeper of Marttin’s athletic fields; Tracey Hildebrand, all-state football player and captain of the Clippers State Class D champion team in 1987 and a member of the state champion varsity wrestling team in 1988, and Tom Koops, coach of the state champ wrestlers and twice state runners-up, who was not present so Bill Heldebrand accepted the plaque on his behalf.
Tanner Curry (52) maneuvers in traffic.
