By Jason Wesseldyk
Sports Editor
MARTIN—The Martin girls basketball team only trailed at the end of one quarter in its season finale against visiting Wyoming Potter’s House on Tuesday, Feb. 27.
Unfortunately for the Clippers, that quarter happened to be the fourth quarter.
Potter’s House used an 18-10 run in the final frame to overcome what had been a four-point deficit and post the 44-40 victory at Martin’s expense.
The loss dropped the Clippers to 13-8 heading into district play.
“We really focused on the details of our defense and we saw some good improvements implemented tonight that were encouraging,” Martin coach Ben Schipper said. “We’re really focusing on stopping the dribble-drive much better.
“We did a good job of this in the first half, but our execution fell off in the fourth quarter and they scored 18 points to take the lead.”
Although disappointed with the final score, Schipper took several positives from the game. One of those bright spots was honoring the contributions of Lily Stocking, Makala Goddard and Elizabeth Reinke on Senior Night.
“We’re so thankful to Lily, Makala and Elizabeth for their many years of commitment to the program,” Schipper said.
Martin, which led 11-7 after one quarter before heading to halftime knotted at 17-17, received a game-high 12 points from Reinke. Macy Thorne added eight points, while Goddard had five.
Alley Bacon, Marybeth Ritchie and Torryn Harris chipped in with four points each for the Clippers.
“It was nice to see some shots finally fall tonight as we’ve really struggled shooting the ball lately,” Schipper said. “We’re continuing to challenge our girls to be more of a threat on the catch and to play through contact. We need to get to the paint to either finish or make the defense collapse and then kick out to our teammates.”
Limiting turnovers will be an area of focus for Martin as it prepares for the postseason.
“We need to eliminate our unforced turnovers,” Schipper said. “Even though we had a lead throughout much of the game, it could have been greater as we had far too many possessions taken away by poor decisions passing and traveling calls.”