Boy’s Basketball: Rough start dooms Chargers

by Jason Wolverton

The Midland Dow varsity boy’s basketball team managed only 13 first-half points Tuesday and battled uphill the rest of the way before eventually falling to Mount Pleasant 56-45 in non-league action at H.H. Dow High School.

Trey Zeigler scored 16 points for the Oilers, while William Arnold and Tyler Gross had 14 and 13 points, respectively. The Chargers, meanwhile, played banged up and short-handed as leading-scorer Spencer Jennings was ill and managed only six points, while Austin Robinson didn’t play at all because of an infection in his hand.

“You’ve got a couple of guys who have been offensive players for us that weren’t there,” said Dow coach Dave MacDonald, “and that hurts.”

What really hurt the Chargers, though, was an anemic offense that managed only five points in the first quarter. But lucky for Dow, Mount Pleasant struggled early as well and managed only 10 points of its own to take a five-point lead into the second.

The bulk of the Oilers’ opening quarter points came in the final three minutes of the first, and Mount Pleasant rode that momentum into the second. Josh Holtz opened the quarter with a bucket that made it 12-5 and Arnold later drilled 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions to open up a 23-9 lead. The Oilers took a 25-13 advantage into the break.

“I thought Mount Pleasant played well,” MacDonald said. “And we certainly didn’t.”

The Chargers played much better in the second half and went on a run late in the third quarter to make a game of it. With Mount Pleasant leading 36-23, Brendan Kroll hit back-to-back threes and the Chargers trailed only by seven heading into the game’s final eight minutes.

Brad Ostergren cut the lead to six with a free throw to begin the fourth and would cut it to four a few minutes later with two more from the charity stripe. Jennings later got into the act with two from the stripe that made it 43-38, and a Zach Riepma shot with 3:50 to go pulled Dow to within three.

Unfortunately for the Chargers, they would get no closer as Ziegler and co. took over and outscored Dow 13-5 the rest of the way to put the game away.

“We didn’t quit,” MacDonald said. “We couldn’t play any worse in the first half, and in the second half we came out and we played hard.”

MacDonald was also pleased with the play of some of his bench players who stepped in with the team short-handed.

“Brendan Kroll and Nick Hoag came in and did a good job and picked us up a little bit,” he said. “It was nice to see that.”

Kroll finished with eight points while Hoag had seven. Ostergren led Dow with 11.

The loss drops the Chargers’ record to 13-4. They will return to action Friday when they host Heritage. Game time is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

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

Photos by Jason Wolverton