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HINCKLEY – Hinckley-Big Rock coach Seth Sanderson described Martin Ledbetter’s playing style as a freshman as get the ball, go to the bucket.
On Tuesday in a 56-32 win against Rochelle Zell, the 6-foot-6 senior center and program’s career scoring leader showed how far his game has evolved.
On top of his 21 points and 19 rebounds, Ledbetter dished out four assists in the win.
“It’s really important to have teammates I can trust to relocate down in the paint like that,” Ledbetter said. “It’s great to be able to kick it out if I can’t get a shot up.”
The Royals (6-1) scored the first 14 points of the game. The Tigers (7-4) cut it to 22-13 late in the second quarter.
But Hinckley-Big Rock scored the last eight points of the half in a 90-second stretch, all set up by turnovers and six coming from Ledbetter.
“It really puts teams down,” Ledbetter said. “This whole week we’ve been working on this defense and it really came around tonight.”
They had a similar 9-0 run late in the fourth quarter to push the lead to 54-30 with 2:42 left, capped by an emphatic dunk by Ledbetter.
After that Sanderson called time out and Ledbetter and the starters went to the bench, ending their night.
“That’s the reason we run and press. Most of the teams are going to take care of the ball most of the time,” Sanderson said. “It’s what we do with those two or three-minute stretches. To get two of those 8-0 runs... it always feels good to get a pick-six, where you get the turnover, get the transition, get the finish and all of a sudden it starts feeding on itself.”
Ledbetter upped his career total to 1,564 career points after his final bucket in a 30-point performance against Somonauk put him ahead of 2010 grad Brian Michels for the record.
He needs to average just over 18 points per game in the Royals' final 21 regular-season games to reach 2,000. He also has a chance to finish between 1,300 and 1,400 career rebounds, which Sanderson said would put him in the top 15 in the state all-time.
“It definitely gave me an ego boost and I’m looking to score 2,000 this year,” Ledbetter said. “That would definitely be great.”
Harry Nier led the Tigers with 14 points and seven steals. Timmy Fay had six of Rochelle Zell’s 24 rebounds.
Ledbetter had 19 of Hinckley-Big Rock’s 31 rebounds. Max Hintzsche was 4 for 8 from 3-point range, 6 of 10 from the floor and finished with 16 points. Ledbetter was 10 of 16 from the floor.
“We have such an advantage with him,” Sanderson said. “Physically there are no matchups for him. Having had him as a freshman, where he was still a mismatch but everything was so fast. But now as a senior he’s slowed down and taking care of the ball and we can play through him. It’s not just catch ball, put it in the rim.”
Ledbetter is also a baseball standout for the Royals in the spring, pitching, catching and playing first base. He said he plans to play collegiately but hasn’t made his plans yet.
Sanderson said he’s looking forward to seeing how Ledbetter finishes up his senior season.
“He’s such a humble kid,” Sanderson said. “He didn’t know he broke it until we took a timeout and I told him. I think he was very, very excited. He gets a lot of accolades but sometimes he gets kind of underappreciated. You just take it for granted when you see 18, 19, 20 points a game. You start to bookmark that and don’t really appreciate it.”