It was a good night Friday for the Martin girls’ basketball team.
The Lady Clippers defeated Holland Black River 32-22 to improve their overall season record to 4-5. And they a chance to honor the hard luck Martin squad that went 22-1, won a conference title and district championship before having their season cut short abruptly by the Covid-19 crisis on the night of the regional title clash.
The Hopkins girls didn’t have quite as successful an outing Friday, losing an O-K Silver Conference battle against Belding, 54-42, dropping their season mark to 3-6 overall, Belding now is 7-2.
The Martin boys’ hoops squad dropped a tight 53-50 verdict to Black River, falling to 3-7 overall for the campaign. Black River now is 5-8.
The Hopkins guys lost 53-46 to Belding, bringing their overall season record to 2-10.
Martin girls’ basketball coach Ben Schipper commented, “It’s not often you win a game when your two leading scorers combine for two points, but our team has great depth, leading to anyone being able to step up any night. We started off the game so cold missing an incredible amount of shots underneath.”
At halftime the Clippers were 4 of 36 from the field.
“We were getting good looks, we just could not make anything,” the coach explained. “Defensively, we knew we had to stop Sydni Smith. She had eight ponts in the first half, which isn’t too bad for us, but we wanted to make sure she never touched the ball. We made some adjustments at half time and held her to only two points in the second half.”
Martin held the entire Black River team to only six in the whole second half, shutting them out in the fourth quarter to run away with the game, outscoring them 11-0 in the fourth quarter.
Sophomore Anna Jager had a breakout game, leading the Clippers with nine points and had many key plays down the stretch with three assists. She and sophomore Kayden Jager ran the guard spots in the second half, putting pressure on the defense and getting good looks for their teammates. Martin’s offensive rebounding was also a huge key to the game, finishing with 22 offensive rebounds.
Anna Jager also had three assists, Marybeth Ritchie six points and 11 rebounds Kayden Jager six points and five steals, Torryn Harris five points, six rebounds, five steals, and Avery Jager seven rebounds four assists and two blocks.
