In an early season “Battle of the Titans,” the Martin girls’ basketball team outlasted Saugatuck Friday evening, 32-27, a defensive struggle.

Both teams entered the contest undefeated, and the Clippers now are 5-0 going into the holiday break while the Trailblazers check in at 5-1. It’s not like the latter group didn’t bring in heady credentials, they had defeated all opponents by double-figure margins.

Martin trailed throughout the first three periods, but then held the Blazers to just three points in the final eight minutes.

“I’m so proud of our team for battling the entire game and never giving up,” beamed coach Ben Schipper. “These girls have so much heart and grit. We never question their effort and they try so hard to do what we ask of them.

“We knew this was going to be a very tough game. We felt our girls weren’t mentally in it in the first quarter. We didn’t seem confident in ourselves and that showed in our play, but we had a great start to the second quarter and started chipping away possession by possession.

“Slowly, but surely, we started believing in ourselves and our ability to get stops. Our defense was tremendous from the second quarter on, limiting Saugatuck to just four field goals the final three quarters.”

The coach said Liz Reinke had a phenomenal defensive effort holding one starter to just six points, and Avery Jager was terrific holding their post player to 13.

“It was a great team defensive effort all around and we are especially proud of the way we rebounded,” Schipper said. “Boxing out has been a struggle for us all year, and tonight it was a huge emphasis for us, and we really executed well. Our ability to keep them off the boards and the amount of second chance points we got was the difference in the game.”

Jager, Reinke and Macy Thorne really stepped up while Saugatuck was holding Martin star Makala Goddard to 1 point.

Thorne had the big time bucket that gave the Clippers a two-point lead at the end, and Marybeth Ritchie scored underneath to put the Clippers up by four points, assisted by Goddard, who netted the last free throw of the game.

Thorne finished with 10 points, Jager had nine and Marybeth Ritchie chipped in eight.

Later in the evening, the Martin boys’ varsity saw its season record slip to 0-8 with a 55-16 loss at Saugatuck.

Elsewhere, Hopkins made the mistake before the season started by scheduling opponents from large schools, and a 56-28 doubling up defeat at the hands of Muskegon Mona Shores was the latest result. The Lady Vikings are winless in six encounters, but the losses also came at the hands of Wayland, Forest Hills Central, Forest Hills Northern and Hamilton. They lost by three to Hamilton and in double overtime to Forest Hills Central.