Dom Martinelli isn’t going to be selected to the McDonald’s All-American game. He isn’t rolling in college scholarship offers. The YouTube video guys aren’t lined up along the baseline to capture his highlights.
But the 6-5 Glenbrook South senior just might be the most dominant player in the state.
Martinelli scored 36 points and grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the No. 16 Titans to a 71-63 win against No. 18 Mundelein in the semifinals of the Lake Zurich Martin Luther King Tournament.
Glenbrook South coach Phil Ralston called it “another Dom game.” Martinelli has been such a prolific scorer the past few years that 36 points isn’t even much of an eye-opener. He scored 51 against Buffalo Grove early in the season.
“He’s a unique player,” Ralston said. “My argument to some of the pundits that don’t think he’s a D-1 player is that the kid is a winner. Whatever it takes to win he does. The mid-majors that find kids like this are the mid-majors that win. He probably has to find the right coach with the right system for it to work but at the end of the day he’s a winner and that is what matters.”
Martinelli isn’t stressing about the future. He’s clearly locked in and focused on the current season.
“I just want to play at the next level,” Martinelli said. “So I’m blessed for whoever takes the time to be interested. I’m going to keep working as hard as I can to get better. I know there are things I have to improve on. So I’m going to do that and just help my team win. At the end of the day I want to help bring championships back to our community.”
The game was tied at halftime. The Titans (17-2) opened the third quarter with an 8-0 run and then held Mundelein scoreless for a nearly six-minute stretch at the end of the third and start of the fourth quarter.
“They had figured out our 1-2-2 defense so our adjustment at halftime was to break out one of my old defenses that we hadn’t practiced very much,” Ralston said. “Our first plan didn’t work. In the second quarter we gave up 25 points. But the halftime adjustments were the key to the game.”
Junior Justin Leszynski had the difficult assignment of guarding Scottie Ebube, Mundelein’s talented 6-8 junior. Leszynski had seven points and eight rebounds.
“There is nothing you can really do to stop him when he gets the ball inside,” Leszynski said. “I fought hard before he got the ball and that was the key to it.”
Ebube finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds for the Mustangs (15-3).
“The job he did was one of the keys to the game,” Ralston said. “We felt like we could withstand either [Conor] Enright or Ebube going off but we couldn’t if both of them went off.”
Enright, a Drake recruit, scored 18 points and grabbed six rebounds.
Sophomore Cooper Noard scored 12 for Glenbrook South and senior Stevon Boyd added 10 points.
“[Noard] is a baby-faced assassin,” Ralston said. “He looks like he’s twelve but believe it or not he does have his drivers licence. I’m not sure I’ve had a kid that has either stepped in as an incoming freshman or had not played sophomore basketball make as big of an impact as Cooper has.”
The Titans will face Cary-Grove in the championship game on Monday.
“We struggled a bit [Friday in a narrow win against New Trier],” Martinelli said. “But I think we had a breakthrough today. We can build on this game.”
The final minute of Glenbrook South vs. Mundelein https://t.co/DcX43p2iYV
— Michael O'Brien (@michaelsobrien) January 18, 2020
