Team of the Month: Midland Dow Girls Basketball
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
January 13, 2022
Coming off an undefeated regular season and trip to the Division 1 Semifinals, it might seem strange to consider Midland Dow’s fast start this girls basketball season . The Chargers never stopped the steam-rolling that carried them to the Breslin Center last April.
But the start of this winter certainly has been different for Dow – the MHSAA/Applebee’s “Team of the Month” for December – and in a way that could pay off big again this March.
Because of COVID-19 precautions, teams weren’t allowed to play their first games last season until Feb. 8, and Dow ended up with 13 of their 17 games against Saginaw Valley League opponents as teams emphasized their league schedules during the abbreviated season.
A return to a full schedule for 2021-22 has allowed the Chargers to make a trip west to face reigning Division 1 champion Hudsonville, bookended by appearances in the Ice Breaker Classic at Ypsilanti Arbor Prep (against Goodrich) and Best of Michigan Holiday Classic at Belleville (against Grass Lake) – events that annually feature many of the state’s elite teams.
They made the most of those renewed opportunities, having handed Hudsonville and Goodrich their only losses and also defeating Grass Lake – the reigning Division 3 champ. Dow is 8-0, and that’s even more impressive considering the Chargers’ first five opponents this season all have winning records and are a combined 27-13.
“We talked about it before the season started, that we had scheduled a pretty hard December on purpose,” Dow coach Kyle Theisen said. “Pretty much every game was on the road – we’ve only had three home games so far – and all of our tough games are road games.
“That was kinda our focus, getting battle-tested early and figuring out where our weaknesses might be. We definitely found the weaknesses, but we were able to do it with wins.”
Those against Hudsonville and Grass Lake, predictably, were close – Dow defeated the Eagles 56-51 and the Warriors 44-40. No other opponent has gotten within single digits of catching the Chargers.
Dow’s 2020-21 season ended with a 22-1 record and its only loss in the Division 1 Semifinals to Hudsonville, 49-37. So doing the math, the Chargers are a combined 30-1 over the last two seasons, and 51-4 over the last three. Total, Theisen has led the team to a 151-22 records now into his eighth season as varsity coach, with this winter’s success following a similar pattern that has made his team one of the state’s best over his tenure.
Long-range shooting is Dow’s name of the game. Ellie Taylor drained 242 3-pointers – ranking eighth in Michigan history – during her four-year varsity career ending in 2017. Molly Davis also is on that record book list having made 174 from 2016-19. Maizie Taylor – Ellie’s younger sister – is on the single-season 3-pointers list after connecting on 65 as a senior in 2018-19. Jada Garner was among the team’s sharpest shooters and its leading scorer last season, and like those three has moved on to play in college. Leading the way this season are seniors Abby Rey and Alexa Kolnitys, who both are averaging 19.8 points per game with plenty of sting from the arc – Rey has made 23 3-pointers at a 39-percent success rate, and Kolnitys has 21 connecting on 35 percent of her attempts.
As a team, Dow averages 8.5 3-pointers per game on 30-percent shooting success. The Chargers’ 66 points scored per game are among the best outputs of the Theisen era, and the team’s 17 3-pointers in Tuesday’s win over Lapeer were a school record and tied for sixth-most in state history made by one team in a single game.
The team doesn’t work much in practices on set plays, but spends an hour or more daily on shooting. Future Chargers learn early. Theisen and his former assistant (and former college coach) Bob Taylor (also Ellie and Maizie’s father) created TRUE Shooting camps about five years ago, and their sessions draw students as young as kindergarteners who “get to high school having a pretty good foundation of shooting.”
“It’s definitely a feedback loop of girls see the success of it, and girls come in and want to improve (on the team’s past records),” Theisen said. “It’s just that cycle of the young kids see it, and we preach at the youth camps that if you want to play college basketball, you’ve got to be able to shoot. And they definitely buy in. … It’s cool to see when you’ve been here long enough to have the next group, and the next group, and the next group, and everybody keeps coming in and doing well."
Past Teams of the Month, 2021-22
November: Reese girls volleyball - Read
October: Birmingham Groves boys tennis - Read
Breslin Bound: Girls Report Week 9
February 3, 2020
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
We’re closing in quickly on that time of year when months of work will play out in girls basketball league championships and this winter – for the first time – seeding of the top two teams at the District level.
Much could be determined in league races this week – check out our “Can’t-Miss Contests” below, which include a sixth game because five just wasn’t enough to note all of the high-profile conference clashes that deserve mention.
We’re also less than two weeks from undertaking the seeding process in basketball for the first time – and need your help. The teams receiving those top-two spots in District brackets – for girls and boys – will do so based on success and strength of schedule, and it’s imperative for MHSAA.com to list all games played and correct scores for each. Know a score we don’t or realize a game is missing that should be added? Send corrections or missing scores to [email protected]. Every result affects multiples of others, and we thank you for your help in advance.
“Breslin Bound” is powered by MI Student Aid and based on those results and schedules posted for each school at MHSAA.com.
Week in Review
The countdown of last week’s five most intriguing results:
1. Detroit Cass Tech 68, Detroit Martin Luther King 43 – The Technicians clinched the Detroit Public School League East title outright by handing rival King its first loss.
2. Bloomfield Hills Marian 36, Farmington Hills Mercy 29 – The Mustangs moved into a first-place tie in the Detroit Catholic League Central by handing rival Mercy its first loss and after falling to the Marlins 46-34 on Jan. 7.
3. Midland Dow 52, Midland 33 – The Chargers avenged a 38-31 loss from Dec. 19 in a big way, handing the rival Chemics their first defeat.
4. Southfield Arts & Technology 59, Flint Carman-Ainsworth 47 – The Warriors’ tough schedule is paying off as they’ve won five of their last six games and handed Carman-Ainsworth its first loss.
5. Detroit Edison 54, Detroit Renaissance 52 – Edison moved to 12-0, but the Phoenix gave the Pioneers their closest in-state game in nearly two calendar years.
Watch List
With an eye toward March, here are two teams in each division making sparks:
DIVISION 1
Battle Creek Lakeview (9-4) After winning 12 games both of the last two seasons, the Spartans are on pace to surpass that total by the end of the regular season. They also enjoy a slight lead in the Southwestern Michigan Athletic Conference East after avenging their opening-night loss to Battle Creek Central (10-3) with a 35-33 win Friday. Lakeview’s only two losses since an 0-2 start are to teams with double-digit wins, Portage Central (10-2) and Battle Creek Harper Creek (11-2).
Detroit Cass Tech (12-1) As noted above, Cass Tech is a league champion again after sharing the PSL Midtown title with King last season. LaTonya Tate, a star on Cass Tech’s 1987 Class A championship team, has built the program into a contender again. Its only loss was to Davison on Dec. 29 at the Motor City Roundball Classic, and Cass Tech also picked up a strong 46-40 win over Southfield A&T on Jan. 25
DIVISION 2
Cadillac (12-0) A 42-40 win a week ago over McBain provided one of the few scares of the season for the Big North Conference-leading Vikings. They’ve run their league winning streak to 16 after closing last winter in the Division 2 Quarterfinals – pretty impressive only a season and a half removed from a 3-18 finish in 2017-18. Cadillac can clinch the league title – at least a share, or outright – Friday against Traverse City West.
Ludington (11-1) Since falling big to Muskegon Reeths-Puffer (12-2) in its season opener, Ludington is unbeaten and nearly unchallenged with only two of those wins by single digits and those two games both against Division 1 schools. The Orioles hold a one-game lead on Muskegon Western Michigan Christian in the Lakes 8 Athletic Conference standings after sharing the title with the Warriors a year ago.
DIVISION 3
Pewamo-Westphalia (10-2) The reigning Division 3 champion had high expectations for this season and rightly so, bringing back most of its firepower from a year ago. The Pirates have celebrated two seniors scoring their 1,000th career points this winter and an early win over Southfield A&T. The losses were pretty strong too – to Grass Lake (12-1) and Division 1 East Lansing (12-1). P-W could meet Grass Lake again in a Semifinal at Breslin.
Ypsilanti Arbor Prep (12-4) After falling to P-W in overtime in a Division 3 Semifinal last season, the Gators are sticking to a winning gameplan. They’ve played 12 of 16 games against teams with winning records and seven games against teams with double-digit wins. They beat two of those 10-win teams over the last two weeks – Royal Oak Shrine Catholic and Jackson Northwest – and their three in-state losses were to Division 1 Ann Arbor Huron (12-2) and Brighton (11-1) and Division 2 Harper Woods Chandler Park (7-6).
DIVISION 4
Camden-Frontier (13-1) Even with just one loss, Camden-Frontier probably was considered just a notch below undefeated Pittsford heading into last week’s matchup – plus Pittsford had beaten C-F at least 17 times in a row (which is as far back as MHSAA.com data goes). But the Redskins came away with a 54-34 win and moved into a first-place tie with the Wildcats in the Southern Central Athletic Association East. They meet again Feb. 17.
Deckerville (10-3) The Eagles entered one of the biggest small-school games in the state last week battling history as well as an unbeaten opponent – and owned the night. Deckerville avenged a 41-28 loss to Kingston from Dec. 16, handing the Cardinals their first loss this season and first league loss since 2013-14. The win also put Deckerville into a first-place tie with Kingston in the North Central Thumb League Stars.
Can't-Miss Contests
Be on the lookout for results of these games coming up:
Tuesday – Macomb Dakota (13-1) at Grosse Pointe South (10-3) – Dakota leads the Macomb Area Conference Red with two more wins than South, but South handed Dakota its only loss, 49-46, on Jan. 17.
Tuesday – Michigan Center (10-3) at Grass Lake (12-1) – Grass Lake won the first meeting 51-46 on Dec. 18 and can edge closer toward the Cascades Conference title with a regular-season sweep.
Thursday – Brooklyn Columbia Central (12-1) at Ida (12-2) – This could nearly decide the Lenawee County Athletic Association title as BCC looks to hold off Ida for the second straight season and won the first matchup 44-36 on Jan. 7.
Thursday – St. Ignace (10-1) at Sault Ste. Marie (11-1) – The Blue Devils are hoping to take back a share of first place in the Straits Area Conference after losing it to the Saints in a 40-37 nail-biter Dec. 20.
Friday – DeWitt (11-2) at East Lansing (12-1) – The Trojans lead the Capital Area Activities Conference Blue by a game over DeWitt thanks to a 62-38 win over the Panthers on Dec. 20.
Friday – Fremont (9-4) at Big Rapids (12-1) – Fremont’s 39-33 win in the first meeting Dec. 20 was Big Rapids’ only loss, and remains the reason Big Rapids trails only Fremont in the Central State Activities Association Gold.
Second Half’s weekly “Breslin Bound” reports are powered by MI Student Aid, a part of the Office of Postsecondary Financial Planning located within the Michigan Department of Treasury. MI Student Aid encourages students to pursue postsecondary education by providing access to student financial resources and information. MI Student Aid administers the state’s 529 college savings programs (MET/MESP), as well as scholarship and grant programs that help make college Accessible, Affordable and Attainable for you. Connect with MI Student Aid at www.michigan.gov/mistudentaid and find more information on Facebook and Twitter @mistudentaid.
PHOTO: Deckerville handed Kingston its first loss of the season last week, and first league loss since 2013-14. (Photo by Jackie Salowitz.)