Last season's ACL tear won't stop La Salle's Grace Martone from chasing a basketball title
PROVIDENCE — The black brace was the only clue.
It stretched from thigh to calf on Grace Martone’s right leg. She tightened the strap behind her knee at one stage in the third quarter Tuesday night, making sure of a snug fit.
You’d never know otherwise she’s barely 11 months removed from tearing her ACL on this same McLaughlin Athletic Center floor. One of the state’s premier female high school athletes is back and seems to be improving by the game — this performance in La Salle’s 42-24 girls basketball victory over Portsmouth was the latest evidence.
“Honestly, maybe the first day I was kind of iffy about things,” Martone said. “I really didn’t think about it the days after that. I just knew it was normal.”
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Martone’s quick recovery is a combination of youth, prior fitness levels as a multi-sport competitor, hard work in physical therapy and the wonders of modern medicine. Reconstructive surgery generally comes with a timeline or anywhere between nine and 12 months — Martone was back in uniform in less than 10, suiting up and starting for the season opener against East Providence in mid-December.
“My hope was we would get her midseason,” La Salle coach Frank Kiser said. “A lot of kids have gone through that injury. Even professional athletes — a lot of them say it’s a year before they even start to feel normal.”
Martone’s junior campaign was cut short in the Division I quarterfinals. She soared to the basket for a transition layup and landed awkwardly along the baseline, leaving the game in the second quarter. The Rams outlasted Barrington but were significantly weakened going forward, scoring just 23 points in the league title game against Juanita Sanchez and falling to Ponaganset in the quarterfinals of the open state tournament.
“She’d come to practice and was literally trying to talk me into letting her play,” Kiser said. “ ‘I think I can play’ — you can’t play. But she’s trying to talk me into it.”
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Reality set in for Martone over the next few months. It was a daily test of diligence — rehab with a physical therapist three to four times a week, some work with an individual basketball trainer as allowed and a few beach days over the summer with friends. Her absence during the soccer season stung La Salle — they were without the services of a dynamic outside midfielder and attacking threat.
“I’d just go to physical therapy that morning and they’d be like, ‘OK, we’re doing this,’ " Martone said. "And I’d be like, ‘OK.’
“I definitely pushed myself the hardest — even if it hurt. It didn’t matter if it hurt. I just wanted to come back.”
Martone was told at the four-month mark after her operation that she was ahead of schedule. She stopped in at a couple of summer league basketball games and met with her teammates. Junior guard Lucia DelPonte was going through the same steps alongside her — she suffered a serious knee injury a month after Martone and followed the same aggressive rehab track.
“I couldn’t get any answers out of her,” Kiser said. “Even though I had seen her in the summer, I had no idea of where she really was, because she just doesn’t tell me anything. Then she shows up here for camp and I’m like, ‘Holy smokes.’
“And I shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was because of the type of injury that it was.”
Martone found her groove quickly — 18 points against the Townies, 20 apiece in victories over St. Raphael and Rogers, 17 of her 21 in the second half of a win over Classical. Her effort against the Saints included a 3-pointer from the right wing, a field goal that secured the 1,000th point of her career.
“It’s not always pretty,” Kiser said. “But she’s just so strong and physical. She plays a physical kind of game. You don’t usually see that out of a lot of guards.”
Martone collected a game-high 19 points against the Patriots. She found the foul line regularly, hit the glass at both ends, shared the ball on the fast break and guarded the perimeter with some edge. The Rams had dropped three straight in league play and needed something positive in this one.
La Salle remains in the Division I-C title hunt with Westerly and Portsmouth. Bay View, Ponaganset, the Eagles, North Kingstown and Cranston West are off to hot starts elsewhere. Those teams and a handful from Division II — Moses Brown, the Shea-Tolman co-op team, Chariho, Mount St. Charles and West Warwick — will all be obstacles if the Rams hope to reach either Amica Mutual Pavilion or the Ryan Center.
“It would mean a lot to me,” Martone said. “I know it would mean a lot to the other seniors on the team.”
bkoch@providencejournal.com
On X: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: La Salle's Grace Martone is back from injury and has a title in sight
