Martin overcomes scoreless quarter to beat Americas in boys regional semifinal
Arlington Martin didn’t score in the first quarter and didn’t have a lead until 2:39 left in the game, but somehow the Warriors gutted out a 42-37 victory over a very good El Paso Americas team in the second semifinal of the boys Class 6A Region 1 tournament on Friday at Wilkerson-Greines Activity Center.
Martin (28-7) will take on McKinney (33-5) at 1 p.m. on Saturday back at Wilkerson-Greines with the winner headed to the state tournament in San Antonio next weekend.
The Warriors struggled early missing their first eight shots of the game and had three turnovers in the opening frame. While Martin was struggling, Americas (35-3) was hitting on all cylinders.
Point guard Jordan Hernandez opened the game with an acrobatic spinning lay up and by the time Damian Vicente buried consecutive three-pointers to close out the first quarter, the Trailblazers had built a 13-0 lead.
Martin coach John Osborn said after the game that he’d never had a team not score in the first quarter.
The Warriors battled back in the second quarter with a 13-3 run that cut the Americas lead to 16-13 after Cydd Ford made a pair of free throws with 56 seconds left in the half. Ford, who led Martin with 13 points, scored seven points during the spree.
Juan Zamarippa had back to back buckets to end the first half and the Trailblazers led 20-13 at the break.
Martin kept battling and pulled to within 24-22 after a banked in three-pointer by Ismael Smith Flores at the 4:10 mark of the third quarter, but once again Americas answered.
A 7-0 run gave the Blazers a 31-22 lead heading into the fourth quarter.
But Martin’s pressure finally got to the Trailblazers after the Warriors opened the fourth with back to back threes from Cody Stevens and Andre Norris to cut the lead to 33-28. The Warriors recorded six of their 11 steals in the game in the final six minutes with Elijah Hill recording three of his game-high five thefts.
Martin finally garnered the lead, 36-35, when Denymh Smith hit a big three-pointer off an assist from Ford. Hernandez made it 37-36 with a pair of free throws with 2:33 left, but the Trailblazers couldn’t hit a bucket the rest of the way.
Martin made 6 of 8 free throws in the final 2:10 to ice the game.
Hernandez was stellar for Americas’ senior laden team. In fact if Hollywood wanted to do a remake of the 1986 movie Hoosiers, Hernandez would be perfect to play Jimmy Chitwood. The square shouldered senior led the Trailblazers with 15 points and was masterful running the Americas offense and handling the pressure that Martin unleashed. The only thing that Hernandez didn’t do was hit the shot to win the game at the end. Hernandez missed on three of the Blazers four three-point tries in the final two minutes.