Stephanie Sturgis - Press Sports Editor
Posted: Thursday, February 5, 2009 2:54 pm

Take a peek — Martin Middle School's Antonio Hogard peeks around a Hillcrest defender during Area 5 Tournament action Monday night at Trenton.

After an extended layoff due to winter storms delaying the Area 5 Middle School Tournament, the Martin Middle School basketball teams finally heated up and got back in action on Monday night at Trenton.
Their return to the courts resulted in a pair of victories. The MMS Lady Panthers showed some rust before pulling away for a 57-34 win over the Trenton Rosenwald Lady Bears. In boys action, Martin easily raced past the Hillcrest Cougars, winning 64-20.
The wins advanced them deeper into tournament action. Both teams will play on Thursday night at South Fulton. The girls will tip off at 7 p.m. with the Panthers in action at 8:30 p.m.
In Monday night's girls game, foul trouble and the extended layoff slowed the Lady Panthers.
Back-to-back early 3-pointers from Kendall Leyhue gave MMS a quick 6-0 lead, but Trenton bounced back. The MMS defense allowed many Bear drives to the rim for layups in a frantically-paced first quarter. After a stanza, Martin held a slim one-point edge, 14-13.
The Lady Panthers did a better job of closing down the path to the basket in the second quarter and held Trenton to eight points. On offense, Martin got five points from Alex Hughey and four from Teddy Vincent as part of her game-high 18 for a 24-21 halftime lead.
The MMS defense got even stingier in the third, holding Trenton to five points. Vincent got busy on the offensive end with seven as Martin hauled a 36-26 lead into the fourth.
In the final frame, Martin finally caught fire with 21 points including eight from Kaley Leyhue to take the 57-34 win.
"I was pleased with our effort and our rebounding, but it was really ugly," MMS head coach Lyle LaRue said.
In the boys game, the Panthers tallied more points in the first quarter than Hillcrest managed the entire game in the 64-20 decision.
Martin scorched the nets for 26 first-quarter points to the Cougars' 6. Antonio Hogard and Javier Gordon each netted seven in the frame. Gordon finished with a game-high 14 points.
R.J. Scott tallied four points for MMS in the second quarter to help his team to a 35-13 halftime lead.
Jazell Baker and Gordon both notched five points for Martin in the third quarter as the Panthers stretched their lead to 49-17 after three quarters. Baker finished with 11 points.
The Panther bench saw most of the minutes late in the third and in the fourth quarter on the way to the 64-20 win.