Girl’s Basketball: Turnovers tank junior Chargers

The Midland Dow junior varsity girl’s basketball team was plagued by fouls and turnovers Thursday as Heritage capitalized on those mistakes to defeat the visiting Chargers 53-41.

“In the second half we struggled against their man-to-man pressure,” said Dow coach Kyle Theisen. “We have to get better with our ball handling against pressure.”

Sarah Arent helped lead Dow’s charge in the first half as the Chargers played well against the Hawks’ zone defense and hit several key shots.

However, Heritage switched to a man defense in the second half and the Chargers couldn’t adjust.

Dow ended up turning the ball over 29 times and they committed 19 fouls, which the Hawks converted into 15 points from the free throw line.

“When you add those two things together there is no way we can win a basketball game,” Theisen said.

Offensively, the Chargers were led by Arent, who finished with 12 points. Also contributing were Kayla Smith, who had seven points and Kristin Mills, who had seven rebounds and four steals.

Next up for the Chargers is a tough match up against Arthur Hill Friday. That contest is made even tougher by the fact that the Chargers are struggling to stay healthy. But Theisen says his team won’t use that as an excuse and will instead look to a good week of practice to stay sharp.

“We are team that is hurting right now,” he said. “We have very few players who are healthy… and we have to be tough and work through it.”