How Arlington Martin played a playoff game with only five varsity players
.jpg "Arlington Martin played their regional playoff game with only five varsity starters on Tuesday.")
Tuesday’s boys’ basketball game between No. 5 Arlington Martin (30-5) and No. 1 Lake Highlands (29-3) should have been one of the best matchups of the 6A Region I playoffs.
However,with only five varsity players available, Arlington Martin came into the game severely undermanned. Those missing players proved crucial in Martin’s 48-45 loss.
The missing Martin players were suspended after they were disciplined for their involvement in a fight during the team’s previous playoff 55-53 win against Lewisville. The game was interrupted with approximately four minutes left in the game.
Pursuant to University Interscholastic League (UIL) rules an ejected basketball player misses the remainder of the game in which they are ejected and the entirety of the next game. As a result, Martin was missing 11 players from their varsity roster against Lake Highlands.
“To be honest with you, my mentality was just we still got five really good players and what do we need to do to survive this game,“ Martin coach John Osborn said Wednesday.
Osborn and his team played a unique four-corner offense that was designed to keep his team out of foul trouble and reduce the pace of the game.
“We felt like if we could pull him [Samson Aletan] out and make him guard one of our smaller guys at the halfcourt line we could create some mismatches,” Osborn said, “ We were just trying to control the offensive side of the ball and creating maybe where they only have four or five possessions a quarter.”
The fans of both teams were raucous during the game understanding the stratagems at play.
“I actually thought the atmosphere was great, their fans were booing us ‘cause they didn’t want us to [play] four corners, and our fans were cheering for us ‘cause they knew exactly what they were doing.”
While the loss stung, even more so due to the circumstances around it, Osborn couldn’t help but feel inspired by his team.
“I’ll honestly say that I’m proud of my entire team, even the kids that were suspended for the game,” he said. “I was proud of all ‘em because the ones that couldn’t play were like coach what do we need to do to get these guys ready.”
Martin was forced to rely on junior varsity players, including one who made his first varsity start.
“We’re playing the No. 1 team in the state so I was ready to hear some doubt out of any of ‘em but I didn’t hear one ounce of doubt out of anybody. I think it shows the class of my team and the class of my kids,” said Osborn.
Osborn said he knows when the team meets on Thursday there will be some emotion.
“Tomorrow when we all get back together for our first team meeting I think there’s definitely gonna be some people it hits pretty hard.”
