NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. — While her all-time Meriden high school basketball scoring record may have been broken Wednesday night by Wilcox Tech’s Roosevelt Shider, Damika Martinez is busy setting new ones at Iona College.
The junior guard out of Platt broke her own single-game Iona record and tied the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference mark when she cranked out 46 points in a 73-66 win over Rider on Sunday.
In a performance that earned her MAAC Player of the Week honors, Martinez shot 16-for-20 from the field. That dead-eye accuracy included a perfect 6-for-6 from 3-point range.
With the 46 points, Martinez surpassed her “old” school standard of 42, set earlier this season against Columbia.
She tied a MAAC mark that’s been around for a bit longer. Heather Fiore of Canisius hit for 46 in a game back in 1997, a few seasons before another Platt standout, Daakeia McFadden, arrived at the Buffalo school.
Martinez, meanwhile, followed up her super Sunday with 23 points on Thursday night in a 78-62 victory over Niagara.
The big deal in this game was the 3-point shooting, not just for Martinez, but Iona across the board. The Gaels, led by five treys from Martinez, drained 16 threes for the game.
That’s a team record.
Speaking of which, Martinez is fast closing on Iona’s all-time scoring mark. It’s held by 1989 grad Maggie Timoney, who scored 1,894 points. Martinez, who arrived at Iona after scoring 1,857 points at Platt, stands at 1,728 heading into today’s home game with Canisius.
Next Thursday, Martinez will make a trip “home” when Iona visits Quinnipiac for a 6 p.m. start.
Not a bad show to take in. For one thing, Iona is 23-3 and leading the MAAC at 16-1.
For another, Martinez has simply been a machine. Her assault on opposing defenses really can’t be overstated. At 25.3 points a game, the Meriden native leads not only Iona, she leads the entire MAAC.
She is also the fourth-leading scorer in all of Division I women’s basketball. Here’s the company she keeps:
1. Odyssey Sims (Baylor) 30.3
2. Jerica Coley (Florida International ) 28.6
3. Chiney Ogwumike (Stanford) 26.5
4. Damika Martinez (Iona) 25.3
At the rate Martinez is going, the all-time Iona scoring record will be hers before the year is out, with one season to go.
At the rate the Gaels are going, they will be the No. 1 seed at the MAAC tournament in Springfield, Mass. the first week in March. An automatic bid to the NCAA Division I tournament will be on the line.
Also cooking
The Trinity women’s basketball team has secured the No. 4 seed in the NESCAC tournament with an overall record of 15-8. The Bantams open the tourney at home today at 2 p.m. against Connecticut College.
Junior guard Alexa Menard, a Wallingford native who went to Miss Porters, averages 17 minutes off the bench for the Bantams. Menard also plays soccer at the Division III school.
Down in New Haven, the Southern Connecticut men’s basketball team extended its winning streak to 11 with Wednesday’s 94-69 rout of Pace. The Owls are in the midst of their longest run since they won 12 in a row in the 1999-2000 season. They are now 22-2 overall and rank No. 9 in the national Division II coaches poll.
Lyman Hall grad Jack McCarthy, a 6-foot-6 sophomore, is a reserve forward for SCSU. He and the Owls will be at St. Rose in Albany, N.Y. today and home vs. AIC on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
Another note from SCSU: Wallingford native Jared Thurston and his 200-yard freestyle relay team placed fourth in the Metropolitan Conference championship swim meet last weekend at Rutgers.
The team swam a 1:23.84. The 1:23.34 the quartet swam the previous weekend in winning the Northeast-10 Conference championship was a NE-10 and SCSU pool record.