Crim: Matas Martin’s play is pointing QU women’s basketball team in right direction

QUINCY — Kaci Bailey inherited 14 players on a team coming off a two-win season when she was hired as the Quincy University women’s basketball coach in April 2021.

Not the ideal recipe for immediate success.

“It was late in the recruiting cycle, and I told the coaches we needed to try to sign a couple of players late and then roll with what we have,” Bailey said.

One of those signees was Beth Matas Martin, a 5-foot-6 point guard from Girona, Spain. She had played the previous season for Garden City Community College in the Kansas Jayhawk Community College Conference.

“I had recruited all the Jayhawk JUCOs when I was (recruiting coordinator) at Wichita State,” Bailey said. “I reached out to everyone I knew to see if they had any players available late.

“Garden City sent film and we knew we needed a point guard. She had already gone home to Spain. We did two Zoom calls, did a presentation and offered her. She was talking to another couple of schools, but we got her and Grace Flanagan.”

It has turned out to be quite the find.

Matas Martin scored a career-best 33 points Saturday to fuel an 84-78 victory over Maryville University in Pepsi Arena. She made 13 of 21 field goal attempts, including 6 of 10 from 3-point range. She scored 10 straight points for the Hawks during one stretch in the second quarter and hit crucial shots and distributed the ball down the stretch.

Moreover, the victory moves QU to 10-11 overall and 6-7 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference. The program had not reached double figures in victories since the 2015-16 season, and Matas Martin is a major reason for the team’s turnaround.

“She’s setting the tone,” Bailey said. “She has always been talented but has taken her game to the next level. She’s doing a little bit of everything. She’s producing by scoring points, getting assists, taking care of the ball and avoiding turnovers.

“She’s playing by far the most minutes every night while handling the ball and scoring. She played 40 minutes Thursday night (against McKendree) and 38 minutes, 12 seconds (against Maryville.) It’s January, so to be able to still shoot the ball that well when you know your body is tired from all the wear and tear says something.

“It was an impressive performance.”

One of many this season.

Matas Martin leads the Hawks in minutes played per game (34.6), scoring (15.2), field goals made (112), 3-point field goals made (53), free throws made (43), assists (85) and steals (25).

She’s shooting nearly 43 percent from 3-point range and 81 percent from the line. She’s averaging nearly 20 points in her last six games, four of them victories, and that includes being limited to eight by nationally ranked Drury.

“She was our leading scorer last year but more or less blended in,” Bailey said. “We had a lot of conversations about her growing more into a leader, taking the day-to-day things more seriously. She has grown and matured a lot this year. She has taken it personal to help turn this program around.”

Matas Martin averaged 11.1 points per game to earn third team All-GLVC honors as a junior when QU finished 9-20 overall and 5-15 in the conference. She has elevated her game across the board this season, however, to become a multiple threat few opponents have been able to solve with the ball in her hands.

“She has always been talented but has taken her game to the next level,” Bailey said. “Coming out of high school she wasn’t a great 3-point shooter or mid-range player. She has put in her time. 

“She has elevated her ability to shooting the 3. She’s also one of the few who can hit the mid-range shot. It’s a lost art in women’s basketball today. Most players can either hit the set-3 or finish at the rim. She has the ability to create space and knock down the mid-range shot, which makes her harder to guard.”

QU currently is in a three-way tie for seventh place in the 13-team GLVC with Maryville and UMSL, teams it has beaten. Of the Hawks’ remaining seven games, four are against teams sitting below them in the league standings, giving them a shot at qualifying for the league’s postseason tournament for the first time in seven seasons.

That would be a notable achievement for Bailey and a program that fell on hard times after once being arguably the league’s best. In the 14 seasons from 2002-03 through 2015-16, QU won 20 or more games 11 times and reached the NCAA Division II tournament in 10 of those.

In the six seasons preceding this one, the Hawks won a combined 36 games and went 19-95 in the GLVC, finishing last in the division or league in all six.

“Our motto is to be better than the day before,” Bailey said. “We’d love nothing more than to have the players experience (postseason play). We just got to 10 wins. We’re making good strides, but we still have a lot of work to do.

“Even if we lose the rest of the games on our schedule, there’s no doubt we have made good strides. We’re competitive. People don’t look at Quincy as an easy win. People have to prepare for us. We have been in pretty much every game. We lost a couple of overtime games early that would have flipped our record.

“We’re headed in the right direction, that’s for sure.”

Beth Matas Martin is helping point the way.