Sophomore keys Martin Warriors’ playoff run

By Mark Wright

Special to the Citizen-Journal

It’s easy to measure Andrew Dotson’s impact on the Martin boys basketball team at the offensive end. But there’s more to his game than his scoring numbers.

Sure, the 6-foot-1 guard poured in a game-high 22 points in the Warriors’ 65-51 victory against Southlake Carroll in the teams’ 5A playoff opener. And in a 63-36 area-round rout of Odessa Permian, Dotson (12 points) was one of only two Martin players in double figures.

But Martin coach Jeff Plemons, whose team played El Paso Bel Air in the regional quarterfinal round after print deadline, considers Dotson’s improving defense the main reason why the sophomore has become an indispensable part of this Warriors’ playoff run.

“His defense has improved so much,” Plemons said of Dotson after his team’s bi-district win. “He could always shoot. He could always score. But I think what really transcends him as a player is his ability to play on both ends of the floor. That’s what really changed Nick [Babb].”

Babb, a junior forward, sets the tone on defense for Martin. As a sophomore, he earned district defense player of the year honors. Babb’s defensive intensity was on full display against Carroll. He constantly made life rough on the Dragons by stepping into passing lanes, grabbing defensive rebounds, blocking shots and converting turnovers into easy transition baskets. Dotson seems to be taking Babb’s example to heart.

“It started on defense. This whole year we’ve been focused on defense,” Babb said. “Defense is part of our offense. We just get easy buckets off defense. We get steals, rebounds. We can just push. We have the ability to just get out and go.”

Added Plemons: “He takes a lot of pride in his defense. And I think Andrew’s slowly getting to that point.”

Dotson has played on the same summer team as Babb, and the pair has been friends since elementary school. Babb’s pass-first approach on offense gels well with Dotson’s style of play. He’s known as a fearless shooter from any range, but Dotson said he knows when to take his shots.

“I feel like depending on the game, it’s important for our offense for me to hit 15 to 20,” Dotson said. “But there’s games also where if I don’t score 15 to 20 depending on our other guards, our other contributors, it works out.”

After a convincing first-round triumph, Dotson still found room for improvement in Martin’s performance. And what he highlighted as areas to work on shows his emphasis on playing hard at both ends of the court.

“I think from this game, we need to shoot free throws better, and we need to play transition defense better,” Dotson said. “That’s just what I saw from this game.”

This game also showed how much better Dotson has become.

Bowie, Seguin advance

The Volunteers and Cougars joined the Warriors in advancing past the area round. Kevin Hervey scored 20 points to key a 19-point Bowie blowout of El Paso Coronado in the second round of the 5A playoffs. Bowie, which was outscored by 14 in the fourth quarter of its 76-70 bi-district victory against Richland, stepped on the gas late against Coronado.

The Volunteers led by just six points after three quarters but outscored Coronado 17-4 in the final frame. Bowie’s reward for topping Coronado was a regional quarterfinal match-up against North Crowley, which edged the Vols by one point and five points in two regular-season games. The Panthers were District 3-5A champions and Bowie was third.

Seguin, which entered the playoffs No. 4 in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches start rankings, got 19 points from senior Brandon Parrish to key a 30-point victory against Wylie in the area round. The Cougars, who also won their bi-district game against Nacogdoches by 30 points, faced Lovejoy in the regional quarterfinal round.

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