San Jac's prize from Pennsylvania now a 1,000-point gem
By Robert Avery, Pasadena Citizen
What’s been the difference between Marsell Holden and the other tremendous players who have come through San Jacinto College’s famed basketball program?
Perhaps it was that unexpected phone call.
From scouting trips to communications with other coaches, veteran Ravens head coach Scott Gernander has always had plenty of advance notice on his other future Raven greats.
But there was nothing advance, planned or prepared with Holden during the spring and summer months of 2009 when Gernander was hunting for players who could turn the negative of inconsistent shooting from the season before into better consistency from his roster.
Then came that day when the phone rang in the coaching office.
“We get these calls every day,” said Gernander, noting the calls he might receive from an overzealous parent or a player who cites exaggerated stats, desperately looking for a place to play.
But this phone call would be different. What it did was trigger Gernander’s curiosity to delve further into the caller’s insistence that he knew of a talent that had somehow fallen through the cracks and had the potential to be a real gem for some fortunate junior college program.
“I think he had called a couple of other schools so we got him in here right away for a visit,” said Gernander remembering the call was on Wednesday and they had this unknown talent in Pasadena by that weekend.
Now two seasons later, Holden’s visit has turned into victories, 52 of them to be exact against just nine defeats and a Top-10 ranking throughout the 2010-2011 season.
“He’s been a special player for two years,” Gernander said.
This past Saturday, Holden reached a special status only reserved for a few Raven players when he surpassed 1,000 points for his San Jac career in addition to breaking William Clay’s long-standing school record for career 3-point goals of 191 by reaching 193.
“Saturday was a very exciting day. Breaking the 3-point record that they had here and reaching a thousand points was a very good accomplishment. I’m just grateful for the opportunity to play here,” Holden said.
Holden however is far from satisfied. He has an agenda on tap for this weekend when the 27-3 Ravens compete in the Region 14 postseason tournament in Tyler and that’s to get San Jac back to the national tournament and win the ultimate prize.
A state championship is something that eluded him during a tremendous career at Farrell High School in Farrell, Pa. He’s been heard in practice to say this is San Jac’s year and if it takes carrying the Ravens on his shoulders, he’s prepared to do it.
“He knows the game of basketball. In my 18 years here, he’s the best pure jump shooter I’ve ever seen,” Farrell High School Athletic Director Lou Paris said Tuesday morning. “He’s just a nice kid. The stuff that happens to him is well-deserved.”
Thanks to that unexpected phone call, San Jac fans have been blessed to watch a young man pick up where he left off in western Pennsylvania.
He scored 1,913 career points for Farrell High School, a school record. He scored 762 points in one season, a school record and he drained 48 3-point goals in a single season, a school record. His best in one game arrived when he drained nine 3s.
Holden’s mother, Tiffany Holden, has been an assistant girls basketball coach at Farrell High School for years and she watched her son capture Pennsylvania’s Class 3A Player of the Year, earn First Team All-State, named District 10 Player of the Year as well as District 10-Region 5 Player of the Year.
To top it off, Marsell Holden was in the starting five for the state’s Roundball Classic, Pennsylvania’s All-Star game for the best high school players.
“I broke a lot of records in high school but in coming here I didn’t think I would break any records. I just play hard and whatever happens happens,” Holden said.
Last season, Holden started just one game for the Ravens. But when Gernander called the freshman to the floor, he made the most of it. He finished with 437 points and a 14.1 points-per-game average. Of that total, he connected on 95-of-231 tries from behind the 3-point arc for 41 percent.
Holden will take to this weekend’s tournament 576 points and a 19.9 scoring average. Like last season, his accuracy from the free-throw line is off the charts, averaging 88.9 percent. Just from the foul line, Holden has compiled an impressive amount of points. For his Ravens career he has 246 points, likely a school record. As for his effort from the behind the arc, he has 98 threes, 21 shy of tying the single-season school record, held by Clay in the 1996-97 season. But Clay got the record in 37 games. If San Jac reaches nationals, Clay’s record could be going out the window.
Consistency has been Holden’s middle name in his two seasons at Anders Gym and that includes some clutch buckets. In a Jan. 29th game against Paris Junior College and the Ravens on the verge of losing a nailbiter, Holden drained a pressure-packed 3-point goal with 23 seconds to play, lifting the team to a four-point win and spoiling Paris’ bid at a perfect January.
A week later, Holden connected for a last-second 3-point goal that forced a game with Angelina into overtime that led to a 79-75 win. Against Jacksonville College on Jan. 12th, Holden scored a season-high 37 points; a game Holden calls his best yet.
“He’s never been afraid to take that last-second shot and when he was playing, the gym was pretty much sold out,” Paris said.
“It started ever since I was little. I always had a basketball in my hand. I didn’t play anything else. It was really all about basketball. I’ve always been able to shoot. When I was in the ninth grade, they made me change my jump shot since I was little. They were looking to the future. Knowing that I’m small, I had to start jumping. Then as I got into the 10th grade and 11th grade, it developed into a great shot. I just started studying other people shooting,” Holden said.
That’s what fans may enjoy best about Holden. So many of his outside scores come when he elevates, lifting off the court by as much as two feet and is still able to knock down shots.
“It just took a lot of hard work. I want to be the best shooter I can be,” Holden said. “Right now, I don’t feel like I’m the best shooter. I feel I can shoot a lot better. I shoot off the dribble better than I catch-shoot. To me, an open shot is harder than a contested shot.”
“When he has a good look, I’m surprised he misses,” Gernander said. The Ravens head coach notes that Holden still has the knack to be a dangerous scorer even when he plays the full 40 minutes, something he’s done four to five times this season.
Holden wasn’t on many opposing teams’ radars last season. But this year he is, making those 576 points all the more impressive.
“One thing coach told me after last season is you’re going to have to add a lot to my game. So now when they take away my three, I’m able to do other things,”
Despite his 5-foot-11 size, Holden doesn’t let that get in the way of his desire to excel. Gernander however jokes that the one area where Holden needs work is in taking charges. For his Ravens career, Holden has taken one charge.
“I played sixth-grade basketball when I was in the third grade. It just started from there. I had a little flat shot but it would go in every now and then. When I was in sixth, I played with eighth graders,” Holden said.
Pressed into point guard duty this year when San Jac’s starting point guard quit the team over the holidays, it had the potential to limit Holden’s effectiveness in the scoring column. But with everything else he brings to the floor, Holden also has some quickness.
“You gotta have speed to go around your man and stop and pop one of those threes,” Holden said.
“That’s probably taken away from his shooting a little bit,” Gernander said. “Last year, all he was was a shooter. But this year, he goes to the hole better.”
In Saturday’s Jacksonville game, Holden went coast-to-coast for a bucket, something he would never have done as a freshman.
San Jac’s playmaker may now be in rare company with his 1,000 points, but because he never captured a Pennsylvania state title at Farrell, Holden would love to trade in those thousand points for just one national crown for a school that gave him the opportunity to demonstrate his skills at the collegiate level.