By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

READFIELD – Word of Ryan Martin’s assault on the tournament record books spread quickly throughout eastern Maine. All the way to Van Buren, where Matt Rossignol became a basketball legend and set many of the records Martin was chasing.

In fact, Rossignol placed a call to Martin, whose father Ken was a schoolmate of his in Van Buren, as the headlines of the Maranacook sophomore’s exploits in the Eastern Class B tournament piled up last week.

“He congratulated me on beating his record,” Martin said with a grin, “and told me to hold off until my senior year to break any others.”

He’s already got the record for free throws, going 18-for-20 from the line in the semifinals (topping Rossignol’s 1985 mark of 17).

His 36 field goals and 102 points for the three-game tournament were both just one shy of Rossignol’s record. And his 15 field goals in last Saturday’s Eastern B championship win over Presque Isle (en route to 35 points) missed the Van Buren Baron’s standard by just two for a game.

Martin didn’t score in that game until midway through the second quarter.

Coming off of that breakout performance, Martin will lead the 20-1 Black Bears into their first Class B title game in school history Friday night at the Bangor Auditorium.

Martin may have been the talk of eastern Maine last week, but folks in central Maine have known about him for some time. At age 11, he won a national free-throw shooting title. His older sister Toby was a standout at Maranacook now starring at Thomas College. And last year, Ryan was part of a highly-touted freshman trio, including backcourt-mate Mike Poulin and swingman Will Bardaglio, that helped give the Black Bears a taste of tournament basketball before this year’s run.

He followed up an impressive rookie campaign with an unprecedented sophomore season, averaging 23 points per game and winning KVAC Player of the Year honors. Armed with some sage advice from his sister (“She just told me that it was tough to win in Bangor because she never won an Eastern Maine title,” he said,) Martin didn’t take anything for granted making his first trip to the Bangor Auditorium.

“I always had (playing for the state championship) in the back of my mind, but I knew it would be tough,” Martin said.

“I knew defenses would be tougher and the game would be a lot faster.”

If there’s anything Martin and the Black Bears can handle, though, it’s a faster pace. Claiming that Maranacook likes to play up-tempo is like saying the Bangor Auditorium crowds are loud. You don’t really know how loud the Mecca is, or how fast the Black Bears are, until you experience them in person.

And the biggest blur, or in this case, the littlest blur, is Martin, who combines speed with a fearless nature that enables him to somehow get his shot off over a defender or usually defenders who are often anywhere from four to 10 inches taller.

“He’s so quick,” Maranacook coach Rob Schmidt said. “When he gets by you by a half a step you’re pretty much done because he’s either going to explode to the basket or he’s going to pull up so quick and elevate so high that the help side can’t get there in time. He has a great sense for where the defenders are.”

“I normally try to pull-up and take the jump shot before they get to me,” Martin joked. “If not, I just try to draw some contact or elevate above them.”

Martin elevates above just about everyone else in a lot of ways. He’s beyond his years.

“Offensively, he certainly is,” Schmidt said. “There are aspects of his defense that remind you he’s a sophomore, but there are aspects of his offense that make you wonder how he can possibly be a sophomore and not a senior or a post-grad.”

Martin may have room for improvement on the defensive end, but it was on that side of the ball that he made what his coach believes was his defining play against Presque Isle.

“The steal he had, he dove for the ball, stole it from (Greg) Whitaker, got back up, took a dribble and kicked it out to Kevin Leary for a 3, who nailed it. I believe that put us up from five to eight with about two-and-a-half minutes left,” Schmidt said. “I believe that was the play of the game for us because it was a five or six point turnaround.”

“That’s a testament to his competitiveness. He’s willing to lay his body out on the hardwood, risk getting hurt, but possibly win the game. That’s what he’s all about.”