Girl’s Basketball: Chemics get first district win in 12 years

by Jason Wolverton

The last time Midland High won a district game, Amy Lane wasn’t even old enough to go to school.

On Wednesday, though, she helped her school do something it hadn’t done in more than a decade.

Lane scored 12 points and had five rebounds to lead the Chemics past Bay City Central and pick up its first postseason win since 1996 with a 46-32 win over the Wolves in the semifinal round of districts at Bay City Western.

“It feels pretty good,” Lane said of the win. “It hasn’t happened in a long time, and it’s good to be a part of something like that.”

Lane, who is a freshman, began the season on the junior varsity team before being brought up early in the season. Since then, coach Elaine Mahabir says she has served as a catalyst for a team that started three freshmen and a sophomore Wednesday night.

“Amy is a spark for us,” she said. “We have confidence in her shooting, and she knows that if she’s open she’s got the green light.”

Lane had that green light early as her 3-pointer opened the scoring for Midland and gave the Chemics a quick 3-2 lead. Central would take the lead back a few minutes later with a bucket from Danette DeCorte, but Jessica Jarema put Midland back on top with a jumper off an offensive rebound midway through the quarter.

Midland would never trail again.

Lane finished the quarter with five points, Jarema had four, and Dani Blake had four as the Chemics built a 16-7 lead heading into the second quarter.

“Bay City Central has good athletes on their team so we knew we had to get them into a position where they were frustrated,” Mahabir said of the Chemics’ fast start. “…our first two games [against Central] weren’t blowouts so we knew we had to come out strong.”

But for as strong as the Chemics played in the first, their offense fell flat in the second. Midland and Central combined to score only nine points in the quarter with a couple of the Chemics’ starters on the bench in foul trouble.

“Fouls are an issue for us,” Mahabir said. “We’re not very deep when it comes to producing offensively.”

Lane and Jarema traded buckets to begin the second half to put Midland up 30-12 before Central made a small run of its own. The Chemics responded, though, and led 35-18 heading into the fourth.

Mahabir played her bench and some of her junior varsity call-ups for a good portion of the fourth while Central made its biggest run of the night. Midland was in the penalty early in the quarter allowing Central to rattle off nine straight points at the line to cut the lead to 40-29. But Mahabir checked her starters back in with three minutes left and they were able to close out Central from there.

Jarema finished with eight points and nine rebounds, while Kelly Dineen scored 10. Dani Blake had a team-high 11 rebounds.

Next up for the Chemics is a showdown with Midland Dow in the district finals Friday. The Chargers have beaten the Chemics in both their meetings this season. Game time is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Bay City Western.

“This is a stepping stone for our program,” Mahabir said. “There are good things for us in the next few years and this is just one stage getting us there. We’ll be playing a good team, but we’ll put up a battle and leave everything on the court. Hopefully we’ll come out ahead Friday.”

To view more photos from Wednesday’s game, click on “Photo slideshow” in the top right corner of this article.

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Photos by Jason Wolverton