Girl’s Basketball: Junior Chargers hold on to beat Chemics

by Cory Butzin

Midland High junior varsity girl’s basketball coach Larry Kastl said his team played one of its best games in weeks.

But it wasn’t enough Tuesday against Midland Dow.

The Chargers battled back from a cold start and capitalized on their size advantage to hold on for a 43-36 win over the Chemics at H.H. Dow High School.

“I thought we started fast; we just didn’t hit any of our shots,” said Dow coach Kyle Theisen. “We had all kinds of good looks, but we just couldn’t hit anything.”

Midland scored the first bucket to take an early lead, but from there both squads went cold from the floor. It took nearly four minutes for the Chargers to score, but that was enough to get them going as Dow was able to hit a couple more shots and take a 7-5 lead into the second.

The momentum seemed to favor the Chemics early in the second as they were able to take advantage of some offensive rebounds and convert off of Charger turnovers to take a 11-7 lead.

But then Sarah Arent showed up.

Arent controlled the paint, making a couple of buckets to fire up Dow. And the Chargers press defense saw them build a 24-18 lead going into the half.

There was little action in the third, as it seemed that both teams were saving their energy for the fourth quarter. And what a quarter it would be.

Midland was trailing 35-27 to start, but their defense stepped up and their offensive execution saw them slowly chip into Dow’s lead.

“The girls played with a whole lot of effort and intensity,” Kastl said. “It was our best execution in quite a while, and I was proud of it.”

The Chemics continued to chip into that deficit and with 3:30 remaining, Midland found itself trailing by only two. But that was as close as they would get.

With three minutes remaining, Theisen called a timeout to calm his team down and set up the next play. That play found Taylor Thurston wide open in the corner where she nailed a 3-pointer to give Dow a five-point lead.

“I’ve always had confidence in Taylor’s shooting ability,” Theisen said. “She’s a very good outside shooter. Setting up that play for her, there was really no doubt she was going to hit it, as long as she was open.”

Thurston’s 3-pointer started a 7-0 Dow run that Midland was unable to answer.

“You have to make key plays in the last couple minutes and the girls are still learning how to do that,” Kastl said. “You have to get in those situations to know what they’re like, and then you have to have success executing. You can’t just wave a magic wand and have the situation create itself.”

Dow was led by Arent who finished with 10 points, eight rebounds, and three steals. Thurston had eight points and three assists for the Chargers.

Midland was led by Randi Cain who had seven points and 12 rebounds, while Chelsea Dull finished with seven points and seven rebounds.

The Chargers’ record improved to 11-7 on the season. They return to action Friday when they host Flint Southwestern Academy. Game time is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Chemics’ record falls to 6-11. They return to action Friday when they travel to Bay City Central. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.

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

Photos by Cory Butzin