Martin girls bounced back Friday night from a season-opening loss to Hopkins with a 62-40 triumph on the home court against West Michigan Aviation Academy.
The Clippers jumped out to a 20-6 lead in the first period and were cruising 45-11 at the half. Coach Ben Schipper then substituted liberally throughout the last 16 minutes.
Senior Gracie Shettler, smarting from a subpar performance against Hopkins Tuesday, came back with a vengeance with 12 points in the first quarter and 18 in the second, including four three-pointers, to score 30 of her game high total 31 in the first half alone. She pretty much retired to the bench throughout the second half.
Freshman Avery Jager and Cirsten Coburn both added six to the attack, as all but one Clipper girl broke into the scoring column. Coburn nailed a couple of threes.
Shettler’s point total for one half just might be a record in these parts. Wayland’s Presley Hudson once put up 29 points by intermission against Hastings six years ago.
“We jumped out to a great start tonight. Since Tuesday’s loss to Hopkins, we have really been stressing being aggressive on offense and getting into our fast break offense. We did that very well tonight,” said coach Ben Schipper. “Our team was scrappy on defense in the first half leading to numerous run outs for Gracie Shettler. Credit to our point guards for getting their eyes up and making the long passes to her. This got Gracie off to a hot start leading to her 31 point career high. She had 12 in the first quarter and 18 in the second quarter giving her 30 in the first half! Near the end of the second quarter, we had a five-possession run where Gracie went 4/4 from three scoring 12 points in 51 seconds of game play. She was locked in and it was so fun seeing her in that zone.”
The coach added, “Each player made plays tonight and it was encouraging to see everyone get involved. It’s always great to have all nine players get so many minutes in a game. It’s important to get that experience early on in the season. We were able to do some things we haven’t done in the past defensively tonight which is huge for us to keep moving forward as a program.”
Martin now is 1-1 for the season overall.
