Martin ascends to top of Wickliffe scoring list

Some of the best basketball players are fortunate enough to become members of the 1,000-point club.

Others go on to become the leading scorer in their program’s history.

Wickliffe’s Stephanie Martin took care of both marks in a two-game span.

A 5-foot-4 ½ guard — “Don’t forget the half,” she says — Martin surpassed the 1,000-point plateau during her team’s game against Berkshire.

One game later, she became the Blue Devils’ alltime leading scorer with an 18-point effort against Cuyahoga Heights.

Heading into her team’s Division III sectional semifinal against Wellington on Feb. 20, Martin has a program-record 1,083 points. Game by game, she distances herself from the 1,028 points scored by Mariah Porter — the previous program record-holder.

More impressively — Martin is only a junior.

“I had never really thought of it, really,” Martin said of her program-altering numbers. “I had a goal way back of getting 1,000 points, but I didn’t expect it NOW. And I have a whole other season to go.”

Martin is averaging 19.9 points per game, which is third in The News-Herald area behind North’s Destiny Leo (30.1) and Euclid’s Constance Chaplin (29.3).

“It’s a real joy to coach her,” Wickliffe coach Anthony Wilson said. “We preach going to the basket, but she can hit the deep shot, too. She plays so hard, and she’s improved every year.”

Martin didn’t arrive at Wickliffe until her seventhgrade year. Until that point, she lived in the Richmond Heights school district, where she grew up admiring All-Ohio basketball star Deja Winters.

“She’s the reason I got into basketball,” Martin said of Winters.

Once at Wickliffe, Martin began to follow the basketball prowess of Porter. Martin noticed the tenacity with which Porter played and worked to be that type of hard-nosed, gritty player that gave everything when she stepped on the court.

Even at 5-4 ½ — again Porter jokingly reminds not to cheat her out of that halfinch — Porter likes to get in the paint and pull down her share of rebounds.

“Heart over height,” Porter said. “I used to be taller than everybody, but now everybody is taller than me. I just have to be more aggressive than everyone else.”

Martin said she knew she was getting close to 1,000 points, but didn’t know she had hit the mark until the game was stopped and the ball was presented to her.

The next night, she surpassed her idol, Porter.

“I thought I was further away than that,” Martin said with a laugh. “The funny thing is, I always make my left-handed layups. But for some reason on that shot, I used my right hand on a left-handed layup.”

As her junior season winds down and her senior year awaits, Martin said her goal is to keep improving as a player and as a teammate. The hard work and attitude that made her the leading scorer in Wickliffe girls basketball history won’t stop now that she has the record.

Nor will her admiration of those who came before her.

“I have always respected Mariah,” she said. “She was such a great player. It is a big honor for me to have done this and set this record.”

SUBMITTED Stephanie Martin of Wickliffe, shown with Coach Anthony Wilson, scored her 1,000th career point and became the school’s all-time record-holder for points in a two-game span.