{"id":10785,"date":"2024-02-08T00:04:55","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T00:04:55","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Belmont-Boys-Basketball-Season-Update-53953405\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=10785","title":{"rendered":"Belmont\u2019s Tony Martinez hopes early-season struggles set Red Raiders up for playoff success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Keegan<\/a>
Keegan Martinez prepares to put up a shot in a game against Winnisquam last January. Martinez and fellow junior Anakin Underhill have led the way for Belmont\u2019s offense this season.<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Through six games this season, Belmont boys\u2019 basketball sat at 2-4. With a roster made up of mostly freshmen, sophomores and juniors, perhaps it wasn\u2019t totally surprising. But head coach Tony Martinez believed his group could turn the corner. And they did.<\/p>\n

Since a 68-35 loss to St. Thomas Aquinas on Jan. 5, the Red Raiders have won eight\u00a0of their last 11\u00a0games\u00a0to vault themselves into the playoff picture at 10-7. They\u2019ll play their final regular season game at Gilford on Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the beginning of the season, we played a lot of good teams that were very experienced, have a lot of veteran returning players,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cI hoped, because we were so talented, that we would maybe eke out a couple wins, maybe surprise some people, but experience and the learning curve had to happen, and I think in all our losses and the struggles we had earlier has made us a stronger team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, he said, there\u2019s a far greater level of confidence in the gym.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said to them the other day, \u2018You guys are no longer inexperienced players. You guys are varsity basketball players.\u2019\u00a0I think once they got that mindset, they\u2019re like, \u2018Yeah, we\u2019re here,\u2019\u201d Martinez said.\u00a0\u201cI think they all started locking in a little bit more and understanding what I was trying to coach them to do. We were able to go on a nice run, and\u00a0we are playing better basketball now when you need to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Division III playoffs tip\u00a0off on Tuesday with the preliminary round.\u00a0At 10-7, the Red Raiders can finish as high as sixth in the standings with a win on Friday or fall as low as 10th\u00a0with a loss. Belmont would need to be an eight seed or better in order to host its first round contest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last year, Belmont was the nine seed and lost to No. 8 Conant, 56-44, in the first round.<\/p>\n

If the Red Raiders want to make a deeper run this season, they\u2019ll need big performances from junior forwards Keegan Martinez and\u00a0Anakin Underhill, who have guided the Belmont offense all season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI truly believe that they\u2019re two of the best big men in the division,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cAnakin has really stepped up his game this year and been in more of an assertive role. Keegan keeps getting better and better and has added a 3-point shot to his skill range, with his post moves and starting to take guys off the dribble. They\u2019ve done a lot for us, and they\u2019ll continue to do that for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Red Raiders have also received contributions from an array of other players, including senior guard\u00a0Hutch Haskins, junior guards Michael Collette and Brady Thurber and\u00a0sophomore guards Wyatt Carroll and Jack Binder.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been fun to coach because I can put in a lot of different variations depending on who\u2019s\u00a0got the ball,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cI think this year, we have our two main guys, but there\u2019s been so many other contributions throughout because guys are finding their roles and learning what they can do at the varsity level.\u201d<\/p>\n

That variety should help Belmont come playoff time. Though the Red Raiders might not snag a top seed in the playoff bracket, they should pose a stiff challenge to any team they have to face.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a very special group. They work really hard, and I\u2019ve worked them really hard because my biggest thing is to try to get them to believe in how good they can be when things come together,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s just been a really enjoyable year, with the peaks and valleys, because even myself as a coach, if you\u2019re not trying to improve on different things, what\u2019s it all about?<\/p>\n

\u201cI think as a whole program, we\u2019re improving, and we\u2019re trending in the right direction. It\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Through six games this season, Belmont boys\u2019 basketball sat at 2-4. With a roster made up of mostly freshmen, sophomores and juniors, perhaps it wasn\u2019t totally surprising. But head coach Tony Martinez believed his group could turn the corner. And they…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":188,"featured_media":10786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=188]Eric Rynston-Lobel[\/Author] Monitor staff","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23,508],"tags":[49,24,505],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[533],"class_list":["post-10785","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-youth","category-top-headlines-cm","tag-belmont-high-school","tag-facebook","tag-paywall","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/42874770-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10785","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/188"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10785"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10787,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10785\/revisions\/10787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10785"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=10785"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=10785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}