Santa Cruz alum Martin shining off the bench
Forward averaging double digits in scoring for Olivet
Chris Martin started 12 of 24 games for Olivet College’s men’s basketball team in 2019-20. He’s started none for the NCAA Division III school in Michigan this season.
Many players might view that as a demotion. Not Martin — in fact, the Santa Cruz High graduate has embraced his backup role with vigor.
“Being able to come off the bench gives me time to see how the flow of the game is going,” Martin said. “It’s kind of my job to come in with the second unit and give us some scoring punch off the bench.”
Martin has done a fairly effective job of that: In five consecutive games from Jan. 27 through Feb. 9, Martin scored no fewer than 10 points per contest.
More recently, Martin scored 18 points — more than all but one of Olivet’s starters — in helping the struggling Comets (1-14, 0-4 Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association) earn their first victory of the season, an 8583 squeaker over visiting Spring Arbor on Feb. 17. Martin shot 8-for-16 from the field, hitting two 3-pointers, and pulled down a team-high seven rebounds — six off the offensive glass.
The 6-foot-5, 230-pound senior forward performed even better against Calvin University on Feb. 6. In that game, Martin scored 23 points — just three fewer than Olivet’s five starters combined.
Martin sank four of his five 3-point attempts in that contest — all in the first half. In doing
so, he proved that he was not as one-dimensional as Calvin’s coaching staff had perhaps anticipated.
“The scouting report on me is, ‘Stop the drive,’ ” Martin said. “They had to switch the way they played me. Once they switched the way they played me, that opened things up for me to drive, which is what I do best.”
For the rest of the game, Calvin’s post players had to pick their poison when defending him: Guard the perimeter and open up lanes for him to drive to the hoop, or close off the lanes and hope he wouldn’t burn them from long range.
“Chris was able to be effective in that game because he was a matchup problem for them,” Olivet coach Sam Hargraves said via e-mail. “While he was able to battle on the defensive end against their big guy, their big guy had trouble guarding Chris on the offensive end. Calvin had to match their bigs on Chris — otherwise, he would post them up, and their bigs had a hard time staying in front of him on drives to the basket.
“When they would step back to stop the drive, Chris would knock down some 3-point shots.”
Three-point shooting wasn’t a big part of Martin’s game when he first arrived at Olivet from Michigan’s Oakland Community College, where he played after a season at West Valley College in Saratoga.
“At first, I was mostly just a driver, not much of a shooter,” Martin said. “I’ve developed more of my allaround game (since coming to Olivet). I’m shooting the three and playing defense more.
“I’ve become more of a college basketball player.”
Martin’s decision-making on both ends of the court — whether he has the ball or not — has also improved tremendously. Hargraves credits that to Martin’s coachability.
“Chris has been buying in to what we’re showing him,” the Comets coach said via e-mail. “He is able to use his skill to his advantage, then has been getting a lot better at making choices for what’s best for the team. Sometimes that is him scoring, and sometimes it’s creating for others.”
A sports management major, Martin has aspirations of becoming a basketball coach when his playing days are over. He’d like to start at the high school or AAU level, though he could also see himself being a grad assistant at a major college program.
“I’d like to teach the things I wish I’d been taught when I was a basketball player,” he said. “Basketball has a lot of mental aspects.
“Everyone can run and jump and score. Everyone is tall. The difference between the good and the great players is how they approach the game mentally.”
Still, Martin’s playing days aren’t over yet. Hargraves is proud of the player Martin has become.
“Chris has grown tremendously as a basketball player in his time at Olivet,” the coach said via e-mail. “He has taken on a role he wasn’t used to being in and been able to adjust well.”
Here’s a look at how other college athletes from Santa Cruz County have fared recently:
Women’s basketball
Haley Jones (Archbishop Mitty), Stanford, So.: The Santa Cruz native scored 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting from the field and grabbed eight rebounds Monday, helping the sixth-ranked Cardinal clinch the Pac-12 Conference’s regularseason title with a 62-48 victory over No. 9 Arizona at Maples Pavilion.
It was Jones’ best scoring output since Feb. 13, when she posted a double-double — 17 points and 10 rebounds, both team highs — in an 8358 blowout of Oregon State. However, Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer could have done without Jones’ seven turnovers.
“Haley’s got to decide that she’s gonna take better care of the ball and not be making some bad decisions,” VanDerveer said. “She’s a young player. I think she’s a very intelligent player. I think her teammates need to talk to her and just say, ‘Hey — take care of the ball, because we want to win.’
“If (she’s) turning the ball over that much, I’ve gotta take her out. That would be unfortunate, because she does so many other really good things. … She’s too good a player to be throwing the ball around the gym like that.”
Jones shot nearly perfectly from the field last Friday against Arizona State, scoring 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting in Stanford’s 8041 win.
Delaney Moore (Monte Vista Christian), Idaho State, Sr.: The forward scored a career-high 25 points on 7-of-12shooting last Saturday, but couldn’t keep ISU (16-3, 12-2) from suffering its second Big Sky Conference loss, an 88-80 defeat by host Montana State.
Moore also had backto-back 10-point games against host Idaho on Feb. 11 and Feb. 13. She pulled down a team-high seven rebounds in the Bengals’ 63-58 win over the Vandals on Feb. 11.
Michaela Thornton (Soquel), St. Katherine, Jr.: The guard/forward netted a team-high 16 points on Feb. 13 in the Redhawks’ 54-40 loss to Benedectine University of Arizona. She shot 4-of-7 from the field, hitting one 3-pointer, and a perfect 7-for-7 from the free-throw line.
Thornton also scored 10 points in St. Katherine’s season-opening loss to Benedictine.
Julisa Vega (Watsonville), Presentation,
Jr.: The 6-foot-2 center averaged 2.6 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.9 blocks for the Saints (2-24) this season.
Baseball
Luke Keaschall (Aptos), San Francisco, Fr.: The second baseman went 1 for 3 and scored a run in his collegiate debut last Friday, helping USF earn a seasonopening 6-2 victory over
No. 2-ranked UCLA. He also hit a game-tying, seventhinning single on Sunday, setting the stage for the Dons’ 8-3 victory over the Bruins.
Aidan Lee (MVC), San Francisco, Fr.: The righthanded pitcher earned a victory in his collegiate debut on Sunday, tossing 3 1/3 innings of middle relief
OTHER CONNECTIONS
in the Dons’ 8-3 win over No. 2-ranked UCLA. Lee struck out four batters and allowed just one baserunner, a hit batsman.
Dylan McPhillips (MVC), Sacramento State, Jr.: The catcher swatted a solo home run on Saturday in the Hornets’ 2-1 loss to 15th-ranked Arizona State. Chase Watkins (St. Francis), Oregon State, So.:
The left-handed pitcher, who pitched for Cal Poly and a community college in Florida before coming to OSU, threw two scoreless innings of relief — one each against Kansas State last Thursday and New Mexico on Monday — for the Beavers at the Sanderson Ford Baseball Classic in Surprise, Ariz. Watkins struck out one batter against Kansas State and allowed no baserunners in either appearance.
Jackson O’Boy (Aptos), UC Davis, R-Jr.: The designated hitter opened the 2021 season by going 2-for-7 with two doubles, two RBI and a run scored in a four-game series against Washington State. Nathaniel BreznerMendoza (Santa Cruz), Longwood, Grad.: The right-handed reliever, a graduate transfer from the University of Portland, tossed a scoreless ninth inning last Friday in his debut with the Lancers. Brezner-Mendoza struck out one batter, walked one and surrendered no hits in sealing Longwood’s 12-5 win over The Citadel.
Dillon Danner (Santa Cruz), College of Idaho, Fr.:
The catcher has connected for RBI singles in two of the past three games in which he’s started, including Monday’s 16-4 loss to Northwest Nazarene. Danner also went 2for 3in a 5-1loss to Northwest Nazarene on Saturday.
Softball Juliana Wilson (Watsonville), Central Florida, So.:
The catcher/outfielder homered in three of 24th-ranked UCF’s first four games: She belted a three-run blast in the Knights’ seasonopening, 13-0 victory over host Florida Gulf Coast on Feb. 13, a two-run shot in the second game of a doubleheader later that day, and a solo home run in the Knights’ 8-5 win on Feb. 14. Wilson also went 3for 4 with a double, two RBI and three runs scored last Friday as Central Florida opened its first homestand with an 18-1 victory over New Mexico State. Through Tuesday she was batting .368 with eight RBI and 10 runs scored in helping UCF open the season 6-1. Lauren LaHood (Scotts Valley), Santa Clara, Jr.: The outfielder’s first-inning RBI single spurred the Broncos to a 4-0 victory over visiting Stanford on Tuesday afternoon.
Men’s basketball
Trey Whitley (Harbor), Black Hills State, Jr.:
The guard has led BHSU in scoring three times in his last five games: Whitley scored 18points on 7-of-13 shooting from the field — including 3-of-7 from 3-point range — on Monday in the Yellow Jackets’ 9170 road win over Western Colorado. He also netted a team-high 21 points, going 7-of-10 from the field and 5-for-8 on 3’s, in Black Hills State’s Feb. 14 win over Colorado Christian and 15 points in the Jackets’ Feb. 16 victory over Chadron
State (Neb.)
Carl Snyder (MVC), Mayville State, Sr.: The 6-foot-9 center scored six points, grabbed eight rebounds, made two steals and blocked a shot Tuesday as the Comets opened the North Star Athletic Association Tournament with a 94-45 victory over Presentation College. Darnell White (Santa Cruz), Fisher , Sr.: The guard scored 11 points in a reserve role on Saturday, helping the Falcons edge host Northern VermontJohnson 95-93 in their season opener. White shot 4-of-11 from the field, including 2-of-5 from 3-point range, and grabbed five rebounds.
Women’s swimming Kathryn Bockman (Aptos), UC Davis, Sr.:
The distance specialist finished fifth in the 1,650-yard freestyle on Saturday at the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championships in San Luis Obispo, touching the wall in 17 minutes, 44.30 seconds. Bockman also placed 11th in the 200 free (1:54.42) on Friday, 14th in the 50 free (5:08.08) last Thursday and swam the fourth leg of UC Davis’ fourth-place 800 free relay on Feb. 17. Bockman won the 500 and 1,000 frees on Feb. 13 in the Aggies’ regular-season finale, a 160-94 road win at the University of the Pacific in Stockton. Bockman touched the wall in 5:08.54 in the 500 and the 10:35.73 in the 1,000. She also placed third in the 100 free (54.03 seconds). Men’s water polo
Gabe Discipulo (Bellarmine College Prep), UCLA, So.: The center, a Santa Cruz native, scored twice on Sunday in the secondranked Bruins’ 16-15 loss to No. 1 Cal at Stanford’s Avery Aquatic Center. It was Discipulo’s third multi-goal game of the season against the Golden Bears.
Women’s water polo Shea Salvino (Soquel), Cal, So.:
Salvino has three multi-goal outings in as many matches for eighthranked Cal this season: She scored two goals apiece in victories over No. 11 Fresno State on Feb. 14 and last Saturday and added two more later Saturday in the Golden Bears’ 22-3 thumping of Fresno Pacific. Women’s indoor track and field
Camryn Crouch (San Lorenzo Valley), Idaho, So.: The sprinter won the 400 meters at Montana State’s Bobcat Bonus on Friday, clocking in at 59.19 seconds.
Football
Scott Poetzinger (SLV), Puget Sound, Sr.: The linebacker recorded five tackles — three solo, two assisted — on Feb. 13 in the Loggers’ 53-6 loss to host Whitworth.
Wrestling
Christian Rebottaro (MVC), Michigan State, R-Sr.: The heavyweight was pinned by Michigan’s Mason Parris — who came in ranked second nationally in his weight class — in 2 minutes, 19 seconds last Friday as the 23rd-ranked Spartans fell to the No. 4 Wolverines 28-9.
Rebottaro also lost to Purdue’s Jamarcus Grant 4-2 on Feb. 12. Rebottaro took a 1-0lead on an escape late in the third period before Grant ultimately prevailed to cap the Boilermakers’ 21-12 victory.