Bond on, off the court helped 'old school' Belmont boys basketball reach top of D3

KEENE - Tony Martinez didn't hesitate when asked what made this year's Belmont High School boys basketball team so special.

"It’s cliché, but they generally care about each other," the Red Raiders coach said following his team's 49-43 victory over Kearsarge in Saturday's Division III final that gave the school its first boys basketball championship.

Martinez is right on both counts, and it showed both in the way that top-seeded Belmont (20-1) played on the court, and how they handled themselves off it.

"They’re friends off the court, they’ve played together for so long and done so much, that they wanted to end it on a high note," Martinez added. "I’ve got a lot of guys that are graduating and going into trade school, and different things like that. They accepted the fact that this is probably the last time they’re going to put on a competitive basketball uniform. They adopted that and wanted to go all out, and end it in the best possible way."

Players and coaches were all aware at the history of boys basketball at Belmont, that no team had ever won a championship, and had only been there three times - in 1949-50 and 1970, losing the Class S title to Ashland each time.

Don't worry if you've never heard of it, as Ashland High School closed in 1990 and its students now attend Plymouth.

In fact, not only had Belmont not been to a title game in 55 yards, it also hadn't reached the semifinals since then before this season.

"We’ve been a team for a pretty long time," senior Keegan Martinez, the coach's son, said. "We started early and we’ve been a team, doing everything together. We’ve been working in the gym a lot together."

To get the title, Belmont at times played a lot more like those teams that came up short generations before, than a lot of teams do now. With two starters - Keegan Martinez and Anakin Underhill - coming in a 6-foot-5 or taller, the Red Raiders used their size advantage in a way that a lot of teams might not.

"I’m an old-school coach," Tony Martinez said. "When you have the size, you go with what your strength is. Keegan, all year, battled inside. He didn’t get a lot of credit for how good a player he actually is because it’s a perimeter game. You don’t see kids battling inside and everything is off the dribble or shooting. You can see there’s still a place for it, and it still works, if you can run it right."

While Belmont only outscored Kearsarge by two points, 30-28, in the paint, where the Red Raiders cleaned up was on second-chance points, holding a 16-2 edge. Keegan Martinez finished with 17 rebounds and Underhill had 10 as Belmont outrebounded the Cougars 35-22.

That included a 22-3 advantage on Kearsarge's side of the floor, severely limiting the Cougars opportunities on the offensive glass.

"I think rebounding was key when we needed it," Tony Martinez said. "Kearsarge made a lot of big shots, but we were there on the glass when we needed to be."

Although Belmont had a distinct size advantage, it also needed to keep up with Kearsarge in the transition game, and was able to do so thanks to Treshawn Ray.

The junior guard, who came back to Belmont after a year away at prep school, was the perfect compliment to the team's size, often beating Kearsarge down the floor and getting his own baskets in transition.

"All season long, his speed, his finishing ability has been so dynamic," Tony Martinez said. "We always said we were one guard away, with our size, to really take that next step. With him, it adds so much. You can never sit back. He’s made me a better coach."

Ray felt the coaching staff was a big reason why the players were able to accomplish what they did.

"It’s not about how good you are, it’s about how good you want to get," he said. "It’s different when you have a good team. Kids want to come to practice. Kids want to play, they want to win. It’s not about how good we are. We want to play with each other. We all wanted a championship. We worked to get it and now we’re here."