Look: Carlsbad duo Jael Martin, Jake Hall interviews after Holiday Classic championship win

Martin's interior play at both ends — he also canned a key trey — and the 27 points from Hall key a largely wire-to-wire victory against one of the Lone Star State's top programs

SAN DIEGO — Maybe the Carlsbad boys basketball team knew something others didn't. Few gave them a legitimate chance to knock off two-time defending Texas UIL 4A state champion Faith Family Academy out of Dallas in the championship game of Holiday Classic's National Division Saturday night. 

The players and coaches talked Friday that they'd have to play a near perfect game to even compete with the Eagles who had knocked off a team that beat Carlsbad — Montgomery-San Diego — by 20 points in a semifinal game. So it made sense the Lancers were considerable underdogs to the long, athletic and well-coached FFA squad. 

Holiday Classic basketball tournament: Live scores, updates, highlights from Day 4 (12/30/2023)

Instead, the Lancers "do what we do" - shoot and make 3s, defend like banshees and rebound like Rodmans — and jumped out to leads of 11-0 and 21-11 before rolling to a 78-69 victory. 

Afterward two of Carlsbad's big stars — National Division MVP Jake Hall and Jael Martin — told us they simply followed the game plan and checked off all their to-do lists to pull off their most impressive win of the season. Hall, a 6-4 junior, scored 27 points and Martin, a 6-9 senior signed to Pepperdine, had 12 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks.  

Jael Martin goes in for a highly-contested left-hand layup.  / Photo: Justin Fine

Jake Hall scored 95 points over four games to be named National Division MVP / Photo: Justin Fine

Look: Carlsbad defeats Faith Family Academy to win the Torrey Pines Holiday Classic top division