Lazaro Martinez wants nothing more than to be on the court. That’s one of the reasons why he’s no longer at Lincoln, where he played sparingly the last three years, including an injury-shortened season as a junior.
But Wadleigh’s 6-foot-4 small forward found himself in a familiar spot in the second quarter Sunday – glued to the bench.
“He has a theory that he can play his way into a scholarship this year,” Tigers coach Mike Crump said. “But he can’t do that if he’s not on the court. He was [trying to] do things he wasn’t capable of doing.”
Martinez was shooting from outside of his range in the first half and trying to force the ball inside. In the second half, he went back to his bread and butter to lead Wadleigh to a 64-59 win over Archbishop Stepinac in the New Heights Holiday Hoops Festival at the Harlem PSAL. Martinez, who has a sweet stroke from 15 feet and in, had all 12 of his points after halftime, a big fourth-quarter block and was 7-of-8 from the free-throw line.
“He said he was gonna start losing trust in me,” Martinez said of Crump’s halftime talk. “I had to step up for my team. He’s been telling me [to play within myself] all season.”
With Wadleigh (10-3) down two in the fourth quarter, junior guard Louis Costen drilled a top-of-the-key 3-pointer to give the Tigers a lead they would not relinquish. Paris Roberts would follow with a free throw and then Martinez scored five straight points and blocked Stepinac big man Auston Taps in transition as Wadleigh took a 59-56 lead with 1:28. Both of his field goals in that stretch were free-throw line jumpers, his calling card.
“He’s like 100 percent from there,” Tigers junior guard Basil Harley said. “We tell him to go there and we give it to him every time.”
Harley and senior guard Trivante Bloodman both had 19 points for Wadleigh, while Josh James and Julian Wright each had 15 points for Stepinac (4-4), which saw Division I prospect Conroy Baltimore held to just one point.
The Crusaders got within a one-possession game at 62-59 with 23 seconds left on a Tyler Iaucone driving layup. But the Tigers closed it out with free throws by Martinez.
“We looked like we were a little refreshed,” Crump said. “We took a few days off for the holidays. Every loss we’ve had, we gave the game away. We finally got one.”
Martinez was a pretty big reason for that. His guardian while he was living in Brooklyn had to move to North Carolina, so he moved in with his mother in Harlem over the summer, which led to his transfer to Wadleigh. After struggling with his grades at Lincoln he now has a 90 average and is eyeing scholarship opportunities.
“I appreciate how he’s accepted me at Wadleigh,” Martinez said of Crump.
That’s why the halftime speech took hold so well.
“If he had been doing that all game, we would have been fine,” Crump said. “He made up for it. I think the message was clear to him after halftime. … He figured it out. That’s why we won the game.”