Friars Journal: Butler's Martin enjoying big senior year

Kevin McNamara Journal Sports Writer kevinmcnamara33

INDIANAPOLIS – Anyone looking to beat Butler this season needs to find a way to slow down senior scoring star Kelan Martin.

The Friars have accomplished that feat better than most but Martin is the Big East’s ticking time bomb. After scoring 10 points on just three field goals in the first half, Martin still found a way to finish with 19 points.

On a day where his scoring skills weren’t needed very much in a second half where the Friars shot just 15 percent from the floor, Martin still found a way to score the game’s biggest hoop. After his team’s 14-point second half lead dropped to eight inside two minutes, Martin nailed a goodbye 3-pointer with 1:47 left that ended the suspense in the Bulldogs’ 69-54 victory.

Martin has enjoyed a great career and a truly special senior season. The wing guard leads the Big East in scoring in league games (23.4 ppg.) and has scored 20 or more points in 11 of the Bulldogs 15 games. He has 18 games with 20 or more points and is now fifth on Butler’s all-time scoring list with 1,883 points.

Martin’s 23.4 conference scoring average is third in the country among the top six conferences. The only players scoring more during conference play are Oklahoma freshman Trae Young (30.4) and Boston College’s Jerome Robinson (25.6).

The one team that Martin hasn’t consistently tortured is Providence. He scored a season-low six points on 3-of-14 shooting in the Friars win over the Bulldogs last month. In the previous three meetings with PC, Martin was averaging just 10.6 points on 26 percent shooting.

No Pop from Seniors

It was not a good day for the Friars’ three seniors.

Rodney Bullock hit two shots and finished with seven points and he was the highlight. Kyron Cartwright finished with three points on 1-of-8 shooting, while Jalen Lindsey failed to make any of his eight shots. Lindsey was playing in front of his parents from Tennessee.

“You’re not winning on the road like that. Not in this league,” said Ed Cooley. “It was a great crowd, great atmosphere. It goes to show the balance of our league. Everybody’s fighting to become a tournament team but we didn’t show up.”

The seniors were not alone. In one stretch Bullock missed a bunny at the rim, Alpha Diallo grabbed the offensive board and his put-back lodged between the rim and backboard for a jump ball. The Friars missed every which way in the second half

“We had some great looks at the basket,” said Cooley. “We missed multiple layups right at the rim. There are some days it doesn’t go your. The Bulldog was stuck in our rim. The ball didn’t go through, that’s for sure.”

Hinkle Home

It was no surprise that Butler played well once again at Hinkle Fieldhouse. The Bulldogs are 13-3 at home and that’s mainly due to an explosive offense. Butler entered the PC game averaging 86.7 points on 52 percent shooting.

Protecting the home court is perhaps the most vital requisite in college basketball. It’s no surprise that Big East leaders Villanova and Xavier sit atop the league. The Musketeers were 7-0 entering Saturday’s game against a ‘Nova team that is 6-1 at home in league play. The Friars are 5-2 and can all but sew up an NCAA Tournament berth by winning its last two Dunkin’ Donuts Center games. PC returns home Wednesday to face Seton Hall and will wrap up the regular season March 3 against St. John’s. The Big East finalized game times for that day this week and announced that the Friars and Red Storm will play at Noon.

Odds and Ends

Freshman Makai Ashton-Langford hit his first 3-pointer in Big East play in the first half. He now has three for the season. He’s now 3-of-22 for the season…The Friars traveled with about 50 boosters, including school president Rev. Brian Shanley…Hinkle Fieldhouse was packed to the rafters with 9,184...New Colts special teams coach Ray Ventrone sat near the PC bench.

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