Boys basketball: Neuqua Valley’s Martin celebrates big weekend in big victory
Neuqua Valley junior Mason Martin had a lot to celebrate Saturday afternoon at the 12th annual Martin Luther King Basketball Showcase at Wheaton Warrenville South.
The 6-foot-5 guard scored 16 points to lead his team to a 96-74 victory over a highly regarded Normal Community squad, while also basking in the glow of his recent commitment to play for the University of Illinois, which he described as his “dream school.”
Martin, averaging over 19 points a game, said that locking in with the Illini relieves a little pressure for the rest of his time in high school by knowing his college destination early, but it also gives him “more motivation to work even harder.”
The junior, who is deadly accurate from 3-point range, said Illinois is the perfect fit for his talents.
“Everything from the coaching staff (and more),” he said. “I've been able to build some good, genuine relationships. The school is close to home, and their culture and their program is something that I want to be a part of, their culture on and off the court.
“They have the best facilities and the best strength and conditioning coaching in the country, and that's something that I want to build on down there.”
Martin is savoring the success of the Illini on the court this season — they're 15-3 and ranked 13th in the nation — while also enjoying a tremendous year of his own with the Wildcats. His team has lost only once, with just an early-season defeat to Oswego East marring a perfect record.
He came up to varsity at the end of his freshman campaign and has refined his game by leaps and bounds from that time.
“He's lights out now, a deadly shooter,” said Neuqua Valley coach Todd Sutton. “It feels like (when he's shooting 3s) that he's shooting layups, even though he's 23 feet away. The improvement he's made from the beginning of last season until now is the most I've ever seen from anyone (in the program). To go through this and be able to get a full ride, I'm just so proud of him and his work ethic.”
Martin, for his part, said that playing for Sutton has been “just super fun, and super intense, especially when we have games like this.”
Neuqua Valley controlled the tilt against the Ironmen most of the way, but Normal surged late to take a 6-point lead near the end of the third quarter.
But the Wildcats took the advantage back at 65-64 after a 3 from junior Arshil Khimani, and they cruised to the 22-point win in the fourth. Neuqua Valley hit 12 3s in the contest.
Highly regard Wildcats sophomore Cole Kelly also had 16 points in the win, while Khimani paced the effort with a team-high 18.
Kelly, who has a great on-court rapport with Martin, said the junior “just does it every single night. Every time he shoots, I feel like it's going in. He and I have great chemistry.”
Kelly says that it's a “little early” for him to be making any college decisions of his own, but Martin has been slyly encouraging his teammate to join him in Urbana-Champaign when the time comes.
And Martin might have the perfect argument, saying, “Who wouldn't want to play for Illinois?”