Boys basketball: Martin steps up, leads Neuqua Valley to seventh straight win
Next man up.
Neuqua Valley suffered an injury to a key player on Thursday and then super freshman Cole Kelly got in early foul trouble Friday night at Metea Valley, so someone really had to pick up the slack in order for the Wildcats to win their seventh straight game and to avenge an early season loss to the Mustangs.
Sophomore Mason Martin was up to the task, scoring a team-high 21 points and helping the 15-9 Wildcats knock off Metea Valley 58-50.
The hard-fought victory was recorded without the services of Whitman Charboneau, who had two big games last weekend before suffering an ankle injury in practice.
“With one of our best players going down in practice, someone had to step up,” said Martin, who drained a trio of 3-pointers on his way to 11 points in the opening quarter. “We knew they would be face guarding our best player, Cole. I felt like someone had to step up, and just after getting hot early it kind of just rolled on from there.”
Neuqua Valley jumped ahead 20-12 in the first quarter with the help of Martin's fast start and 5 points and 5 rebounds from Kelly. But after Kelly picked up a second foul and sat out the second quarter, the Mustangs (13-10, 2-5) drew even at 29-all at the half and then had a 40-37 lead late in the third quarter before the visitors finished strong and prevailed.
“The first game I was super sick and I wasn’t even there,” Martin said of missing the tight loss to Metea earlier. “I really wanted to win this one. I really wanted to get that revenge game. It’s a super big win to pull out. With all the adversity we were facing, it’s great.”
Mustangs senior Tyler Miller did all he could to try and get his team the sweep of their conference rivals as he knocked down four 3s on his way to 21 points. Teammate Tre Watkins added 14 points before leaving the contest with an ankle injury with 6:37 left to play and the Wildcats on top 43-40.
“This time around we just couldn’t get a stop,” said Miller. “And we came out awful in the first quarter. We battled back in the second quarter but then in the third we had another lull. When you have two lulls in the game it’s going to be hard to win it.”
A strong second half from Kelly made it hard for Metea Valley to win as the forward tallied 9 points and 5 rebounds after the intermission to finish the night with 14 points, 10 rebounds and 2 blocked shots.
“It’s always a scrap against them, Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton said. “They’re so tough and physical and they’re a rival. We had resiliency. A lot of guys stepped up tonight. We needed everyone and Danny [Podpora] did a nice job. He made some big plays.”
Podpora had 8 points and 4 rebounds and David Taiwo had 9 points and 5 boards for the Wildcats.
“Over the last however many years there, it's been tight ballgames,” Mustangs coach Isaiah Davis said of the rivalry. “Coach Sutton does a great job with them and they always come ready to play. They came out and jumped on us and we dug a hole. The kids did a good job of coming back but they’re a good ballclub.”