Iona's Martinez Sets Records With 46-point Outburst

For sure, calling Iona's junior guard Damika Martinez "dynamic" on a women's basketball court isn't anything new.

She is all of that, and dominant, too.

The defending Player of the Year in the MAAC, as well as the two-time defending scoring champion (she's the only player in league history to lead it in scoring as both a freshman and a sophomore) all but wrapped up both honors again Sunday afternoon.

In case you haven't heard, the 5-foot-7 Martinez scored a record-setting 46 points in the Gaels' 73-66 victory over Rider at the Hynes Athletic Center.

The 46 points broke the facility's previous best of 42, held by Lamont Jones last season. And, it broke the Iona women's single-game best, also 42, which Martinez set earlier this season in a game at Columbia.

The 46 points also tied the MAAC's single-game record held by Heather Fiore of Canisius in a 1996-97 season's game.

And, Martinez was most efficient in setting the standard, connecting on 16 of her 20 field goal attempts including a perfect 6-for-6 from three-point range.

We've written about Martinez before on Keepin' Track of the MAAC, and you can find a feature about how her extra work has helped her development by searching the January items on this blog.

You can also see how Martinez is approaching historical numbers with her scoring exploits.

Sunday's effort pushed her career scoring total to 1,705 points, already 19th best all-time among women's players who have ever performed in the MAAC.

If we accept that Iona will play at least eight more games this season (four more in regular-season play, three in the league's post-season tournament and, almost assuredly, one in a national post-season event), she'll add another 200 or so points to that total.

That would push her career scoring total to over 1,900 points. Only seven former MAAC women's players have ever gone over that figure for a career.

And, Martinez will have another season to continue to pile up points.

If she just duplicates this season, she'll put up another 800 or so points as a senior.

That would give her something north of 2,700 career points, which would shatter the conference's all-time record currently held by former Loyola standout Patty Stoffey, whose career mark is 2,467.