The Martin girls’ varsity basketball team will play Kalamazoo Hackett Catholic Central at 7 p.m. Friday in the Division 4 district finals at Decatur High School.
The Lady Clippers defeated Byron Center Zion Christian 44-35 Wednesday in the district semifinals to advance to the finals against a Hackett team that beat Lawrence in the other semifinal.
“Tonight was a great win for our team,” said coach Ben Schipper. “We had a great start ,getting out to a 9-0 lead. I liked our aggressiveness to begin the game. Zion battled back in the second to make it a five-point game at halftime. We knew it would be a hard fought game, as Zion always plays extremely hard and aggressive.
“We came out in the third quarter and were more disciplined on offense and stingier on defense allowing us to push our lead to 12 entering the fourth quarter.”
Cirsten Coburn hit some big shots and scored 13 points for the Lady Clippers. Avery Jager also had a great game taking the ball to the basket, scoring 11 points.
“Our offense wasn’t the same without her on the court tonight,” the coach said. “She gave us that desire on the offensive end that we need.”
Makala Goddard handled Zion’s pressure and had some assists tonight to go along with seven points and Lynsey Jager made a few baskets to score eight points.
Lynsey battled Zion’s top scorer Alson down in the post all night.
Martin owns an overall record of 18-4 and Hackett will take a a 15-8 mark into the contest. The Lady Clippers prevailed 39-35 in a nonleague matchup between the two last December.
