The Martin girls’ varsity basketball team recorded its 10th straight victory without a loss this season with a 52-41 decision at Fennville Friday evening.
The Martin boys lost 72-66 to the Blackhawks and their overall season record fell to 2-6.
The Lady Clippers may be reminding local coaches and fans of two other teams in school history that started at 10-0 — the 1987 squad that was Class D state runner-up and the team from 25 years ago that went undefeated during the regular season, but was defeated early in the post-season tournament. Both were coached by Robert VanDenBerg, who ironically is the assistant coach to first-year mentor Ben Schipper this season.
Friday night’s opponent was more savvy offensively than others, scoring 41 points against a team that has built a reputation for being stingy on defense.
The Lady Clippers mounted a 16-9 lead at the end of the first quarter and were up 22-18 at the half.
Senior Faith Guritz paced the attack with 17 points and had eight rebounds and four steals; Bri Warner added 14 points, 10 rebounds and four assists, and Kiaya Warner counted nine points four assists and five steals.
“Our team showed a lot of grit and mental toughness tonight,” Schipper said. “Aside from the first quarter, this was not a good shooting night for us. Fennville’s zone packed the middle of the lane tightly limiting our scoring inside. We worked hard and found great mid range and open threes, but they just didn’t fall for us all that well tonight.
“Despite the struggles, we stayed focused, level-headed, and committed to defense and rebounding down the stretch. We handled their press extremely well and did enough to hold on.”
The coach described as “unbelievable” the second half performance from Fennville’s Corryne Howard scoring 21 points (five threes) of her 25 total points.
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