Boys Basketball: Boilers' Allen, Martin team up as cousins

For as long as they can remember, Nick Allen and Liam Martin have competed against and with one another. As cousins of an athletics-oriented family, they’ve got plenty of Thanksgiving football games, Easter wiffle ball games and days of driveway basketball together under their belts.

But after childhoods of playing at their grandparents’ house together, Allen and Martin have spent the winter as the starting frontcourt for the the Bradley-Bourbonnais boys basketball team.

Allen, the consensus top center recruit in the state for the class of 2025 and an Illinois State commit, has continued his stardom after earning Daily Journal Player of the Year and consensus Class 4A All-State first-team recognition as a junior.

At the time of print, he’s averaging 22.5 points per game on 63% shooting to go along with 10.6 rebounds and 2 blocks per game for a Boilermakers team that’s 12-6 overall.

Martin, who’s back on the court for the first time since his freshman year, is averaging 8.5 points per game on 50% shooting and 6.5 rebounds per game.

After he decided to forego his sophomore year of basketball to focus for his first varsity season as a pitcher on the baseball team last spring, Martin was playing a 2-on-2 game with Nick, their cousin, Luke Allen, a 2024 Bradley-Bourbonnais graduate who played football and baseball, and their friend, Bradley-Bourbonnais senior Ben Lovell when the persuasion began.

“Me and Liam were going at it, going bucket for bucket,” Nick said. “Ben’s uncle was there and asked Liam why he didn’t play basketball, and Liam said he didn’t know, and he just kept asking him, and that’s where it started.”

“I don’t think the convincing ever stopped from then until I decided to play,” Martin added.

Nick and Liam might be the latest prep standouts from their family, but they’re far from the first.

Their cousins Jake and Emily Allen were the first to make athletic waves at Herscher. Jake made multiple Daily Journal All-Area, Illinois High School Soccer Coaches Association All-Section and All-Interstate Eight Conference teams before graduating in 2018. Emily, a 2021 graduate, was a Daily Journal All-Area and All-Illinois Central Eight Conference champion sprinter.

Then there’s their group of cousins that also went to Bradley-Bourbonnais, Courtney, Kennedy and Luke Allen. Courtney, a 2020 graduate, was the captain of the girls volleyball team. Kennedy Allen, a 2022 graduate, was part of a softball program that kicked off its current streak of back-to-back-to-back regional championships that began her senior year.

Luke was a Daily Journal and All-SouthWest Suburban Conference wide receiver on a football team that won its first playoff game in seven years as a senior, the same year he was the starting center fielder for a baseball team that snapped a six-year IHSA Class 4A Regional championship drought. He’s currently a wide receiver for NCAA Division II Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo.

Nick’s older brother, Matt, a 2023 Bradley-Bourbonnais graduate, was a tight end for a football team that snapped a six-year playoff drought his senior year and also starred on the hardwood alongside Nick when he was a junior and Nick was a freshman.

And now whenever the Boilers boys basketball team has a home game, much of the family can be found sitting in the balcony together.

“Pretty much every game we’ve got aunt Amy, aunt Katie, my parents (Scott and Joy) and grandparents (George and Mary) sitting up in the top left corner,” Nick said. “ … It’s cool, every once in a while my uncle Joe will come, other random people, the other aunts and uncles who aren’t always there.”

For Nick and the boys basketball program, the cousins on the court is just the latest family dynamic the Boilers have seen. In addition to Nick and Matt playing together for a year, the team’s also seen brothers Owen and Braden Freeman and Ethan and Gavin Kohl share the floor, as well as head coach Ryan Kemp and his son, Anthony, a 2024 graduate, and assistant coach Eric Long and his son, Brayden, a 2023 graduate.

“There hasn’t been a time, probably since seventh or eighth grade, where I haven’t played without [family members on a team],” Nick said. “Once you get on the court, it gets competitive and you’re your own person, but outside, it was fun to watch Gavin and Ethan mess with each other and stuff like that.”

For Liam, suiting up on the hardwood with Nick is his second familial athletic experience as a Boiler. The two were a part of one of the most special teams in the baseball program’s storied history last spring. Their run to the Sweet 16 came as a fairly significant underdog, as they were seeded last in their nine-team sub-sectional, one they finished a game away from winning.

While he’s enjoyed both opportunities to play with family, and hopes to make another postseason push with Nick this winter, the experiences have been different. As a starting pitcher with Luke in the outfield, Liam’s daily practice routines didn’t mesh much with Luke’s, but they did get plenty of time in the dugout together. In basketball, Liam and Nick are the team’s starting power forward (Liam) and center (Nick).

“On the field, it’s hard to compare because I’m playing with Nick and in different positions than Luke,” Liam said. “But both are great experiences, for sure.”

On the floor together, the two both said their favorite thing to see is the opponent running any kind of zone defense to slow them down, as their cousin connection gives them the chemistry to handle those looks. For Kemp, it’s pretty nice to be on the receiving end of a family with sizable genes. Nick stands at a towering 6-foot-11 while Liam’s no slouch at 6-foot-4.

“I’ve coached against size and you can’t do anything about it,” Kemp said. “There’s nothing you can do to make Nick Allen shorter. It’s so tough to deal with, and the game is about close shots. It’s a percentage game and if you can get those closer shots, you’re probably gonna win. And guess what? We’ve got 6-foot-11 Nick Allen there.”

Even as teams try to counter with double-teams, triple-teams and other creative defensive schemes, Nick’s proven for four varsity seasons that there’s not much to be done to stop his pursuit of paint points. While Liam’s learning how to do the same, his ability to skirt out to the perimeter makes the duo a tough one to tame.

“Liam is such a good counter to Nick,” Kemp said. “There’s no comparison, Nick is more a power guy who’s dunking and scoring from two feet, and Liam has that soft floater from the base line. When he gets loose, he can either drive and slam one or step out and shoot a 3 when they focus on Nick. “

They have their immediate sights set on winning the school’s first boys basketball regional championship since 1999, but looking ahead, the future is bright for both cousins. Liam has two more baseball seasons and another basketball season, but for Nick, this winter is his last prep sports ride, the end of a four-year career, before he becomes a Redbird next season.

“I’m excited to play and ready to go,” Nick said. “I’ve played a lot of high school basketball.”

https://daily-journal.com/sports/boys-basketball-boilers-allen-martin-team-up-as-cousins/article_6c82ccaa-d7a3-11ef-80bc-f708b6f7de5c.html