By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
MARTIN—Start strong and then hold on.
That was the formula the Saugatuck boys basketball team used to secure a 43-36 SAC divisional win over Martin on Friday, Dec. 13.
The Trailblazers, who improved to 2-4 overall, led 12-0 after one quarter.
“It was a great first quarter, and then it was all about hanging on for dear life and seeing if we could close this thing out,” first-year Saugatuck coach Ty Rock said. “Fortunately, we were able to put (Martin) in a bit of a hole, because it turned out to be a closer game than we wanted.
“But it was a physical game and I thought we did a good job of keeping our cool and getting the job done.”
The first quarter included a pair of 3-pointers from senior Carter Miller and four points from classmate Cass Stanberry.
“We switched up the lineup a little bit, not so much in terms of who was starting but with the roles each guy had,” Rock said. “Our focus was to get out in transition and those threes came from transition.”
The duo of Stanberry and Miller finished with more than two-thirds of Saugatuck’s offensive production, as Stanberry scored a game-best 18 points and Miller had 12.
It’s no coincidence that those two are the only returning starters from last season’s 18-6 squad.
“We’re a really inexperienced team, with Carter and Cass being the only two guys who are back and had significant minutes (last year,” Rock said. “But It’s tough for them, too, because they’re coming from a system that’s completely different than the one I’m running. It’s not the same offensive. It’s not the same defensive. It’s a different mentality, even.
“They’re the seniors we’re going to depend on and they’re going to play a big role in determining how this season goes.”
Jordan Hoshor added six points for Saugatuck, with Sammy Gamboa and Caiden Pearson chipping in with four and three points, respectively.
“I’m really pleased with the way Sammy’s been playing,” Rock said. “He might not be scoring a lot, but he’s doing a lot of the little things. He’s really setting the tone for us and playing some really good defense.”
Ethan Fitzpatrick paced Marin (2-4) with 16 points. That included nine third-quarter points—six of which came on a pair of 3-pointers with the other three coming on free throws—to try to keep the Clippers in the game.
Martin trailed 26-13 at halftime and 36-23 after three quarters before narrowing the gap to seven points a handful of times in the fourth quarter.
But that’s as close as the Clippers would get as the early deficit proved to be too much to overcome.
“Another slow start was our downfall tonight,” second-year Martin coach Corby Callaway said. “We came out flat and could never recover. Saugatuck plays hard and they battle. We have to figure out a way to get going early so we don’t have to use so much energy trying to fight back.
Gavin Meyers added nine points in the losing cause to go with four rebounds, three steals and three assists. Blake Sweeting topped Martin with nine rebounds.
Saturday, December 21, 2024
