Martin defeated Watervliet Tuesday night 53-33 to lifts its girls’ basketball season overall record to 18-1.
The Lady Clippers now look forward to a showdown with Gobles at home Friday evening in a battle for the Southwest Athletic Conference Valley Division championship. Both teams now sport 8-1 records in league play.
Once again, Martin took control early, shooting out to a 15-8 lead in the first quarter and was up 32-16 at the half. The gap widened to 46-25 at the end of three periods.
Senior guard Kiaya Warner scored 14 points and came up with five steals to pace the Lady Clippers’ balanced attack, Faith Guritz had 10 points, four assists and six steals, Bri Warner eight points, six rebounds and four steals, Jaclyn Hildebrand seven, three assists and four steals, and Freddie Elkins six.
“Tonight we really got after it in the first four minutes, jumping out to a 14-0 lead. The starters executed our press very well,” said coach Ben Schipper. “It was great to see us continue to build on this part of our defense that we have used sparingly throughout the season.
“I am very proud of the way we finished around the rim tonight. We had a 75% around the rim, which was a huge improvement for us. Our guards were very aggressive on offense tonight which opened up a lot of opportunities for their teammates. Defensively, we had very active hands and finished the game with 23 steals.”
The bench got some quality minutes and continued to grow, the coach added.
“It’s been a lot of fun to see the girls put into action what we’ve been emphasizing in practice,” Schipper said. “This group does a great job of learning things quickly and then implementing them into real, game situations. It’s very rewarding as a coaching staff to see those things. We did a lot of good things tonight and we’re now looking forward to our rematch with Gobles.”
