He's known as "eBay," but a change to eTray might be needed.
Eric Martin was hitting from long distance and coupled with Brainerd's antagonizing defense the Warriors enjoyed a 76-48 victory over Section 8-4A foe Elk River at Brainerd High School Friday, Dec. 28.
Martin finished with 17 points on 6 of 8 shooting. He dropped five 3-pointers and added a mid-range jumper to his stat sheet.
"I was feeling it early today," Martin said. "Right when I got into the gym. I always have to be feeling confident in my shot and I felt it tonight. And my teammates found me, which is huge."
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Three of Martin's 3s came in the first half as Brainerd exploded for an 11-0 run to start the game and carried the momentum to a 38-16 halftime edge.
Owen Davis provided two crowd-pleasing dunks before the Elks even found the scoreboard. His second was an alley-oop from point guard Mason Malon that made it 11-0.
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Warriors 76, Elk River 48
- Key: Brainerd held Elk River to 21-percent shooting in first half
- Overall: Brd 4-4; ER 2-5
- Next: Brainerd at St. Cloud Tech 7:15 p.m. Friday, Jan. 4
- For more photos go to https://bit.ly/2AnidR9
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Elk River finally scored at 10:26 of the first half, but Brainerd rattled off a 16-3 run to make it 29-7. The Warriors held the Elks to 21 percent shooting (6-of-28) from the field and just 1 of 11 from 3-point.
"Even when they think they have open shots we were getting a hand out there and challenging every shot," Warriors head coach Charlie Schoeck said. "They didn't shoot a good percentage, but I'd like to think some of that was what we were doing, too. "That's not always the case, but I think tonight it was. We were making things really difficult just to get into the half-court offense and once they were there we challenged every shot that they took."
Meanwhile, like Martin, Brainerd was on fire, hitting 50 percent (14-28) from the field and (6-12) from 3-point.
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Brainerd forced nine turnovers compared to its four and scored eight points off of those. Davis, who finished with a game-high 19 points, scored nine in the first half. Joey Sauer added 13 points, but Brainerd saw nine different players reach the scoring column.
Brainerd's full-court press didn't provide too many turnovers, but it did create energy, which translated into easy transition baskets.
"One big, positive byproduct of our press is it does create some easy hoops," Schoeck said. "It has a couple benefits. One is it gets the other team out of what they want to do. It really makes them work to get into their half-court offense and getting easy looks is another thing."
Elk River shot 39 percent in the second half, but Brainerd's hot hand never fizzled as it outscored the Elks 38-32. An 11-2 run, featuring four straight Malone points, handed Brainerd a 63-30 edge.
"We just wanted to keep the pedal down and not let up on them," Martin said. "We just wanted to continue doing what we were doing and not change anything."
The Warriors have won four of their last five and moved to 2-2 against section opponents.
"I hope there are a lot of statements that we make throughout the season," Schoeck said. "This is the first time in a long time or this is the first time ever. One of the goals that these guys have this season was to get a home playoff game. Tonight's game, and next Friday's game against St. Cloud Tech, are ones we have circled because we need those in the section if we want to get a home playoff game."
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Elk River 38 38-76
Brainerd 16 32-48
ELK RIVER
Carter Behne 10, Dylan Fruth 3, Alex Eng 4, Devon Roberts 15, Liam Carr 2, Isaac Hultberg 4, Sam Erickson 10. FG 19-61 (31 percent), FT 8-9 (88 percent). 3-point 2-21 (9 percent).
BRAINERD
Ben Staehling 7, Mason Malone 8, Eric Martin 17, Owen Davis 19, Gabe Smith 2, Joey Sauer 13, Connor Powers 2, Griffin Rushin 6, Max Lelwica 2. FG 28-57 (49 percent), FT 9-9 (100 percent). 3-point 11-20 (55 percent).
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For more photos go to https://bit.ly/2AnidR9 .
