by Jon M. Gambee

Martin ran its season record to 5-2 Friday with a convincing 59-44 victory over visiting Bloomingdale, which saw its season record fall to 0-8.

Tanner Curry continued his streak of double-doubles, scoring 31 points to lead all scorers and grabbing 14 rebounds. Curry has now scored a double-double in all seven games this season.

Garrett Dill scored 14 points for the Clippers. William Mills led Bloomingdale with 13 points and Austin Martin scored 12.

Martin jumped out to a 7-0 lead to start the game, but then let Bloomingdale back into it as the Cardinals outscored the Clippers 10-2 the rest of the way to take a one point lead into the second quarter.

Bloomingdale led by as many as four (15-11) before Martin began to solve the problem. Garrett Altman tied the game at 15-15 with 4:44 left in the half and Andrew Keyzer put the Clippers ahead just moments later. Bloomingdale fought back and actually took the lead one more time on a three-point basket by Devon Asbury but Dill found Keyzer open for a basket with 2:40 left in the half and the Clippers went up 19-18. Martin never trailed again.

Dill showed his unselfishness by following that assist up with a nifty pass to Altman for two and then found Curry open underneath for another two points and Martin took control of the game from there. Dill hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to make it 31-20 at intermission.

Like all good coaches, David Curry made adjustments at half and his team dominated play from that point on.

“This was a difficult team to play,” Curry said, “because they are so free wheeling on the floor. They can turn a game in to a series of one-on-one contests. We talked about that at the half and we did a much better job of moving and staying with the offense in the second half.”

Martin led 41-29 going into the final eight minutes.

Down the stretch Bloomingdale sent Curry to the free throw line 12 times and the junior center hit 11 from the charity stripe to put the game out of reach.

Martin will play at Delton Tuesday, Jan. 19, and then at Galesburg Friday. The Clippers return home to host Lawton on Tuesday, Jan. 26.

PHOTO: Junior Tanner Curry (52) registered his seventh straight double-double in the victory over Bloomingdale. (Photo courtesy of Jon Gambee)