Martin is the key to Washburn crown

Mankato West brought a 29-1 record and the No. 1 seed into the Class 3A boys' basketball state title game. The Scarlets had accomplished this with 47 percent shooting from the field.

On Saturday night, Minneapolis Washburn used a pressure defense that often caused West to start its offense backed up almost to the time line. The rattled Scarlets went 6-for-28 (21.7 percent) in the first half and required Derrick Cattrysse's three-point bomb at the buzzer to reach 14 points.

Fortunately for West, Washburn also treated the basketball as if it was a hand grenade (10 turnovers) for much of that half and the lead was 25-14.

"That's a good team," Washburn coach Reggie Perkins said. "We knew they were going to make a push."

This was an accurate assessment. West pushed within 31-29 in the opening four minutes of the second half. Three more times the Scarlets had the margin at two and finally it was 44-43 with 5 minutes left.

West never could wipe out the lead completely. Ra'Shede Hageman, the 6-7 future Gophers football player, was an important reason for this by muscling inside to get baskets, get fouled and gather rebounds.

The main reason, though, was Hageman's longtime teammate Cedric Martin, a 6-3 guard-forward. He was the player taking it on himself to make the most crucial plays during a 10-minute stretch of tension in the second half.

"We were struggling right then," Martin said. "I'm a captain. I have to take charge. I had a bigger guy on me and thought I could beat him on the dribble."

Ninety seconds later, Martin missed inside, retrieved the rebound and again restored a four-point lead.

Inside four minutes, West was within 46-43 and had the basketball. The Millers were applying pressure and Martin anticipated a West pass, reached out for the ball and went for a layup.

"Cedric's steal was big," Perkins said. "That opened it up for us."

The Millers had the chance to make free throws after that. The final was a deceptive 58-45, and Washburn had the third state championship in its history -- following a one-class title in 1954 and a Class 2A title in the two-class system of 1994.

The pair joined the Washburn varsity together as freshmen. "We had the dream of doing this, winning the state, but we kept getting knocked out early -- twice by Benilde [St. Margaret's], once by Orono," Martin said.

There were some reinforcements with the Millers this season. "It took a while to get our chemistry," Martin said. "We had quite a few losses early."

Washburn was 5-4 after a loss to Wayzata on Jan. 10. It was 21-1 after that, and knocked off a group of Mankato West athletes that included several players from last fall's Class 4A state football champs.

There are lesser seniors than Martin in the Twin Cities that are headed to Division I programs. He will be attending Lee Community College in Baytown, Texas.

"I didn't do well with grades as a freshman and a sophomore," he said. "I have to go to a junior college because of that. Lee was recommended to me by some coaches."

On a team that preaches balance, Martin and Hageman dominated the scoring and the boards for the champs.

"Our philosophy is to get the ball inside to Ra'Shede whenever possible," Martin said. "If he's open at all, we try to get the ball to him, and then go from there."

On Saturday, Martin went off on his own -- down the middle, down the baseline -- to continuall keep Mankato West from nudging in front.

"Cedric is definitely a Division I talent," Hageman said. "Perk [coach Perkins] always says basketball is an inside-out game, and that's how we played tonight.

"Cedric and I have played together for so long and we know each other very well on the court. We used that tonight. We both did our thing."