Courtesy photo
By Jeff Bartlett
Special to WBIW.com
MARTINSVILLE – They threw a big ol’ Staggs party, boys basketball style, at Martinsville Tuesday night when Bedford North Lawrence boogied into town for the first contest of 2023.
Nobody on either roster has any pending nuptials in the near future. Hopefully, at the moment all they’re married to are good grades, hoops and a whole lot of fun. There were a lot of bachelors bouncing the basketball around in John Wooden Gymnasium, and Martinsville invited more Staggs, but the Stars boasted the best of the bunch.
When the smoke settled, senior guard Colton Staggs led the BNL bash with 19 points as the Stars danced past head coach Kip Staggs, guard Brody Staggs and the rest of the Artesians, 60-53.
“There were quite a few Staggs out there,” Colton said with that wide winner’s smile. “I noticed that before the game. I don’t know them or anything, but I guess I wanted to be the best one out there.”
Mission accomplished, though in Kip’s defense he didn’t suit up. It was a reclamation party of sorts for Colton Staggs, who resolved to rediscover his scoring punch after producing just 27 points in his previous four outings, including games of two and zero points.
“I definitely wanted to be more aggressive,” he said. “I hadn’t been looking for my offense much lately and I need to do that for us to help the team. So I was really focusing on getting more aggressive looking for my shot. Or I wanted to drive and score or look for my teammates.”
It was a welcome sight for BNL head coach Jeff Hein, whose club was coming off a heartbreaking 71-70 loss to Mooresville in which senior guard Colten Leach was magnificent with 41 points, but Staggs was the only other player in double digits with 11.
“Staggs played great tonight, played really well at the offensive end,” Hein noted. “I wouldn’t necessarily say he’d been struggling, but he just wasn’t looking to score, and we need that out of him for this team to be successful.
“Leach was great last time with 41, but we lost the game, and you just have to have balance. Tonight we had five guys looking to score, and we had three in double figures with Leach getting 19 and Noah (Godlevske) with 14.
“We had big contributions from Kaedyn Bennett doing what he does, banging around inside, Kole Bailey came in and gave us some good things, and Trace (Rynders) didn’t score but he got us a few extra possessions with some nice defensive plays.
“It’s a team game, and this is a really nice win for us.”
It was tight most of the way with the Stars eking out a 14-13 lead at the first stop behind a trio of 3-pointers from Godlevske, whom the Artesians tried to ignore defensively and paid the price. BNL took center stage in the second stanza as the Staggs party started with a gorgeous spinning five-footer, followed by back-to-back treys as the Stars built a 24-16 edge and forced coach Staggs to a timeout.
The Artesians made some moves of their own to close the half down just 26-21. Colton Staggs kept the good times rolling early in the third period when he drove for a score and drew a foul on Brody Staggs, completing the three-point play. He then fed Bailey for a trey, and buried a trifecta from the top of the key to make it 35-24 at the 6:02 mark.
Martinsville picked up the pace defensively with fullcourt pressure, and senior forward Caleb Cheatham paced a counter charge with a pair of three-point plays and 10 points total in the quarter to bring the Artesians back within 43-37 heading to the final eight minutes.
The press produced a couple of more turnovers on the Stars, and Martinsville kept coming. Cheatham’s second 3-pointer of the fourth period gave the Artesians a 46-45 edge with 5:58 to play, and visions of another win turning to a loss starting dancing around for the BNL faithful.
“We got a little bit passive when we got the lead, and you hate to see that because we had played really well,” Hein said. “But we were able to make some plays and come up with defensive stops when we needed them.
“I told the kids this was a game where we had to have defensive stops because Martinsville is patient on offense and plays tough man-to-man defense, so possessions would be limited. Our defense bent some, but it didn’t break tonight.”
This time Staggs and Leach would not allow the win to slip away. After Skyler Pruett drove to give the Artesians a 52-51 lead with 2:28 to play, Staggs roared downcourt and with a counterattack drive, and the Stars didn’t trail again.
He added two free throws with :30.5 showing to cap his season-high scoring night, and Leach came alive with 11 points and eight rebounds, to finish with a double-double of 19 points and 16 boards.
“We finally won a close one,” Staggs sighed. “We needed that, so it’s a good win for us on the road.”
Hein agreed.
“It was a big win for the kids,” he said. “We needed it after the last one, and this team plays a lot like Seymour, which is a big conference and sectional rival for us, so this one should be good for us moving forward.”
Cheatham finished with 22 points and Brody Staggs added 10 for Martinsville (4-6). BNL (4-3), which travels to Evansville Reitz Friday night.
BEDFORD NL STARS (60)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
4 Kaedyn Bennett, f 1-2 2-3 0-0 1 3 5
2 Colten Leach, f 0-0 5-12 9-14 16 2 19
22 Colton Staggs, g 3-4 6-9 4-5 2 4 19
1 Trace Rynders, g 0-3 0-3 0-0 1 2 0
11 Noah Godlevske, g 4-7 5-8 0-0 0 1 14
14 Kole Bailey 1-1 1-2 0-0 4 4 3
34 Jett Jones 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
12 Maddox Ray 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
5 Houston Corbin 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
15 Kline Woodward 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0
Totals 9-17 19-37 13-19 24 16 60
MARTINSVILLE ARTESIANS (53)
3s FGs FTs R F Pts
14 Caleb Cheatham, f 2-2 8-11 4-7 5 3 22
33 Jack Wolff, f 0-0 1-6 2-4 6 1 4
5 Will Bastin, g 0-1 2-4 0-0 3 4 4
4 Brody Staggs, g 1-1 3-6 3-3 3 5 10
3 Skyler Pruett, g 1-2 4-6 0-0 3 1 9
22 Grady Gardner 0-5 1-9 0-0 0 0 2
12 Rhys Wolff 0-0 1-2 0-0 1 2 2
Totals 4-11 20-44 9-14 21 16 53
Bedford NL 14 12 17 17 – 60
Martinsville 13 8 16 16 – 53
Turnovers – BNL 9, Martinsville 12
Field goal percentage – BNL 19-37 (.514); Martinsville 20-44 (.454)
Free throw percentage – BNL 13-19 (.684); Martinsville 9-14 (.643)
