Boy’s Basketball: Johnson’s 17 leads freshmen Chemics past Chargers

by Jason Wolverton

The Midland High freshman basketball team outscored Dow 20-7 in the second quarter Thursday, and Tony Johnson scored a game-high 17 points to help the Chemics improve to 7-2 on the season with a 55-41 win over the Chargers at H.H. Dow High School.

The win was Midland’s second of the year against its cross-town rival, after the Chemics took December’s opening matchup 68-48. But this time things were much closer, as only the second quarter stood in Dow’s way of making a game of it. Midland outscored Dow by three in the first quarter, Dow won the third quarter by two points, and both squads scored seven in the game’s final eight minutes.

“We played them even for three quarters, but we lost the second quarter,” said Dow coach Rocky Graham. “We preach to these kids that this is a four-quarter basketball game. We’re not in here to win one quarter or two quarters, we’re here to win four quarters and we didn’t do that tonight.”

Midland also didn’t do what it set out to do, which was put Dow away after its big second-quarter run. The Chargers came out of the break with a renewed energy and managed to outscore Midland 22-20 the rest of the way.

“Our team is a lot better than that,” said Midland coach Kevin Dodick. “That was an ugly game. Overall, we’re doing better, but we still don’t take care of the ball real well.”

Dodick was upset, in particular, with his team’s play late and the Chemics’ inability to run the clock down.

“When we’re up fourteen with two minutes left, we don’t need another basket,” Dodick said. “They need to understand that we just need to take care of the ball and go into delay.”

The Chemics weren’t delaying early, though, as they came out of the gates firing on all cylinders and took a quick 7-0 lead. Dow answered back with a run of its own and used a 3-pointer at the tail end of the first to cut Midland’s lead to 15-12.

But Dow could not sustain anything offensively and missed a number of open looks and second-chance opportunities. The Chargers would finish the night shooting 13-for-67 from the floor.

“We don’t shoot very well,” Graham said. “That’s how we’ve been shooting for the last four games and we’re just not going to get it done shooting twenty percent.”

While Dow was struggling from the field much of the first, Johnson was beginning to take over for Midland. He scored on successive Midland possessions towards the middle of the second as the Chemics began to increase their lead. The 6-foot-2 freshman finished the half with nine points, scored 17 for the game, and had several impressive blocks on the opposite end of the floor.

“Tony is a really good player,” Dodick said. “He has a great chance next year of playing varsity.”

The Chargers weren’t done in by Midland’s run, though, as they pressed the Chemics in the second half to create turnovers and finally get some easy buckets. They outplayed Midland in the third quarter and were even in the fourth, but couldn’t make up any more ground.

“This group of kids never quits,” Graham said. “We got down early, but they don’t quit and they keep working hard.”

Jake Riepma led Dow offensively with 10 points, while Nick Stafford had eight.

Jacob Lewis had 13 points for Midland High.

Next up for Dow is a matchup Wednesday at Bay City Central. Game time is scheduled for 7:15 p.m.

The Chemics will return to action Wednesday when they travel to Bay City Western. Game time there is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

For more photos from Thursday’s game click on “Photo slideshow” in the top right corner of this article.

Photos by Jason Wolverton