A long-range gunner
Martysz sinks 7 triples to lead Redmen past Ishpeming, 73-46
MARQUETTE — Junior guard Ethan Martysz found the shooting zone on Tuesday night to insure the Marquette Senior High School boys basketball team would run away from Ishpeming for a 73-46 victory.
Martysz drained seven 3-pointers to account for all 21 of his points as the Upper Peninsula’s No. 1 Class A-B-C team improved to 6-3. The No. 5 Hematites slipped to 4-3.
MSHS head coach Brad Nelson said good ball movement and Martysz’s sharp shooting were keys.
“Against (Ishpeming’s) zone (defense) you’ve got to get them moving side-to-side a little bit to create some gaps, and that was our plan,” he said. “It took us a while to get into that zone, though, and try to gut it a little bit.
“The fact that Ethan shot like he did tonight, that was his breakout game and now teams have to worry about him as well. We’re getting there, more and more guys are having big games.
“That’s our plan and it was great to see him finally have a night like this because he’s capable.”
Martysz credited his teammates for his big night.
“The team did a great job getting me the ball,” he said. “We got open looks and we converted on them.”
Ishpeming head coach Anthony Katona said the Hematites got careless with the ball, letting Marquette capitalize.
“We definitely learned some things,” he said. “We learned what we really need to improve on for the season. We didn’t come out and play our best game, we didn’t take care of the basketball tonight. That’s two games on the season now that we didn’t take care of the basketball, and both of them are losses in the book for us.
“When we don’t take care of the basketball like that, (Marquette was) able to get some easy buckets off of us. They worked the ball around really hard so that was good. Our defense is going to learn from that, we’ve got to work a little harder on that end and hopefully things will be a little better on the offensive end next game.”
With Marquette struggling to get a basket in the opening minutes, Ishpeming jumped out to a 6-0 lead on 3-pointers by senior guard Hart Holmgren and junior forward Darius Yohe.
After that, Martysz put the Redmen on the board with his first triple. The Redmen were able to tie the game up when junior guard Raffy Millado notched a 2-point bucket and was fouled. Millado sank the free throw to tie it 6-6.
The Hematites took the lead right back on a putback from Yohe before Redmen sophomore guard Luke Ogea responded to tie the game 8-8.
Yohe answered that with another bucket to put the Hematites up 10-8 before Martysz hit his second 3 to give the Redmen their first lead. Marquette scored seven more unanswered points to finish the quarter ahead 18-10.
Martysz was just getting warmed up, as he hit two more 3s early in the second to make it 24-10.
Ishpeming pulled within 31-21 on a shot by Holmgren, but MSHS still managed to push its advantage to 36-21 by halftime.
Marquette continued to pour it on in the second half, outscoring the Hematites 37-25 over the final two quarters.
Ogea and junior teammate Bryce Brazeau added eight points to the winning effort. Ishpeming was led by Holmgren with 16 and Yohe with 11.
Marquette won the JV game 62-49.
Ishpeming hosts Gwinn on Thursday, while the Redmen are off until Thursday, Jan. 25, when they entertain Kingsford.
Email Ryan Spitza at sports@miningjournal.net.