Girl’s Basketball: Junior Chargers crush Wolves

by Cory Butzin

The Midland Dow junior varsity girl’s basketball team played suffocating defense Monday and held Bay City Central to just two second half points as the Chargers cruised to a 60-17 win at H.H. Dow High School.

“That was our best defensive performance of the year,” said Dow coach Kyle Theisen. “They didn’t get many good looks at a shot.”

The Chargers had a huge size advantage over the Wolves and used it and an effective press to get on top early. Dow was able to generate turnovers and dominate the paint as they led 15-5 after the first.

Dow didn’t let up either. They continued to pound the ball into the post, where they were able to capitalize on that height advantage to push the lead to 30-15 going into the half.

“That’s what we were trying to do,” Theisen said. “Work the ball into the post and get our points in there. Even if we missed we felt we had a better chance of getting a rebound and a put back than shooting from the outside.”

And since that strategy wasn’t broken in the first half, Dow didn’t fix it for the second. The Chargers continued to go inside in the third quarter where much of the work was done by Kristin Mills, who finished with a game-high 12 points.

And if offensive dominance wasn’t enough, Dow decided to show they could play a little defense, too.

The Chargers did not allow the Wolves to score a point in the third quarter. In fact, Central didn’t find the bottom of the net again until over a minute had passed in the fourth, and by that time the score was 51-17. That was the last basket Central would make as Dow cruised to the victory.

“We really made a conscious effort to not give up any weak side shots and offensive rebounds, to not give them anything easy,” Theisen said.

Also contributing for Dow was Sarah Arent, who finished with eight points and 10 rebounds, and Kayla Smith who had eight points.

With the win, the Chargers improved to 10-6 on the season. They return to action Thursday when they travel to Mount Pleasant to take on the Oilers. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.