SEYMOUR — All year long, New Albany senior Brett Martin has quietly put up solid numbers, while fellow senior TeNale Roland and junior Donnie Hale share the spotlight.
But on Tuesday in the first round of the Class 4A Seymour Sectional, Martin stepped out of his teammates’ shadows and had the game of his life.
The 6-foot-5 forward tallied a career-high 32 points to lead the two-time defending sectional champions to an 85-60 victory over the host Owls (9-12).
The second-ranked Bulldogs (21-0) will face Jennings County in Friday’s second semifinal at 7:30 p.m. The first semi will pit Jeffersonville, a 68-60 victor over Floyd Central in Tuesday’s sectional opener, against Bedford North Lawrence.
Martin wound up shooting 14-of-17 from the field, as he found holes in Seymour’s zone defense throughout the contest. He scored 11 points in the first quarter and 19 in the opening half.
“I got a lot of easy looks,” said Martin, who also grabbed seven rebounds. “They just kind of backed off of me and I think they were more focused on TeNale and Donnie. They just sort of forgot about me.”
New Albany head coach Jim Shannon summed up Martin’s performance with one word — “fantastic.”
“Brett has played great all year long. Obviously, he had an extraordinary game from a points standpoint,” Shannon said. “But I’m sure Brett would be the first one to give Donnie Hale just a little bit of credit because (Hale) takes so much of the attention. Brett was smart enough to find the open gaps and get into them. And then your guards got to be smart enough to get him the ball at the right time.
“It’s a team effort, it always is. It’s never one guy.”
Hale, Martin’s 6-7 frontcourt mate, had his usual all-around game with 11 points, a game-high 11 rebounds and a game-high seven blocked shots. It was Hale’s 13th double-double of the season.
Roland scored 13 points and New Albany sophomore Chris Whitehead had 10.
Martin was not the only player on the Scott Gym floor going for 30-plus points on Tuesday. Seymour junior Matt Trimnell tallied 31 points, shooting 9-of-14 from the floor and 5-of-8 from 3-point range. He also connected on all eight of his free-throw attempts.
“I thought we played great defensively, except Trimnell was out of his mind,” Shannon said. “He just made shots from all over the place. Sometimes you just got to take your hat off to the other team. I don’t think we played bad defense on him. I just think he played better offense.”
Both Shannon and Martin were happy to begin the sectional with a solid effort.
“You’ve got to get a good start,” Shannon said. “If they’re the underdog, you don’t want the other team to feel like they can play with you. I thought we came out of the chute pretty well.”
“It’s really important because it sets the tone for us,” Martin said.
SEYMOUR 16 11 19 14—60
NEW ALBANY 23 18 24 20—85
Seymour (9-12) — Trimnell 31, Moore 9, Fife 7, Polbito 3, Carmichael 2, J. Eggersman 2, E. Eggersman 2, A. Kirtley 2, C. Kirtley 2, Lucas 0, Toppe 0, Ude 0.
New Albany (21-0) — B. Martin 32, Roland 13, Hale 11, Whitehead 10, J. Martin 6, Winburn 6, Rohlfing 5, Benson 2, Klein 0, Meyer 0, Toliver 0.
Three-point field goals — Seymour 8 (Trimnell 5, Fife, Moore, Polbito); New Albany 6 (J. Martin 2, Winburn 2, Rohlfing, Roland).
Rebounds — Seymour 30 (A. Kirtley 6); New Albany 26 (Hale 11).
Turnovers — Seymour 23, New Albany 11.
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