TRAVERSE CITY — The good times keep rolling for Traverse City Central as the Trojans’ varsity girls basketball team picked up its ninth straight win and moved to 6-0 in the Big North Conference.
Central toppled Petoskey by a 60-43 final at home Thursday, moving the Trojans to 10-3 overall with a clean mark in Big North play. They began the season with losses in three of their first four games, but Central has long since turned the corner as winners of nine in a row. That streak included a five-point victory, 46-41, at Petoskey on Jan. 23.
“They’re making adjustments every game,” Central head coach Jen Dutmers said. “I couldn’t ask for more, right now. They’re pushing the ball for 32 minutes. They’re playing the whole game and running the floor. I’m extremely proud of them.”
Petoskey had quite the opposite start to the season as its Big North foe, winning five of its first six games. But the Northmen have fallen on hard times lately with Thursday’s 17-point defeat marking their fifth consecutive loss. Petoskey now sits at .500 with an 8-8 overall record and a 2-5 mark in the Big North.
“Just keep our heads up,” Petoskey head coach Bryan Shaw said. “It’s 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it. We’ll be back in the gym and ready to go.”
Shaw was nothing but complimentary of the Trojans after his team’s loss.
“Jen (Dutmers) has done a heckuva job with this program. I think Traverse City Central is playing as well right now as anyone we’ve played this year,” he said. “They came and proved it.”
Lucia France got things started for Central, knocking down the first two buckets of the game for a 4-0 lead. Lauren LaHaie put Petoskey on the board with a 3-pointer, and Quinn Matthews later connected on a triple to knot the game at 6-6.
France finished the quarter with 12 of her game-high 16 points as back-to-back layups put Central ahead 16-15 after eight minutes of play. France finished the night with a double-double, hauling in 10 rebounds to go along with two assists and five steals.
The game stayed close until the closing stretch of the second quarter when the Trojans used a 7-0 run to lead 30-22 at the break. Marlie McGregor converted a steal into fastbreak layup followed by a layup and a trey from Kylie Ball to stretch Central’s lead to eight at halftime.
McGregor finished with seven points, three assists and two steals, while those were all five of Ball’s points on the night.
Jakiah Brumfield opened scoring in the second half with a smooth dribble-drive layup to put Central up by 10. That lead would balloon to 20 points with just under three minutes left in the third on a long jumper from Lucy Bongiorno to make it 45-25.
With the game well in hand, the Trojans played solid defense and controlled the ball on offense in the final quarter to leave with victory and maintain a two-game cushion in the Big North with four conference games left on the schedule — including two against second-place Alpena, which beat Gaylord 42-41 on Thursday.
“I believe in every single one of those kids,” Dutmers said. “They can all contribute in their own ways.”
Brumfield scored 10 points on 5-of-8 shooting with five rebounds, nine assists and three steals. Lorelai Zielinski also reached double figures with 10 points.
Both Brumfield and France said their early-season adversity has only been a positive for the Trojans.
“Those first four games really helped us,” Brumfield said. “We put it all out on the line, and that has helped us get ready for the teams we’re playing now.”
France said she saw those first four games as a “rebuild.”
“We were able to figure out what each player could do and how we could all play together,” she said.
That has led to top-to-bottom solid chemistry for a Central team on the verge of a double-digit win streak.
“I am having so much fun with this group of girls,” Dutmers said. “You’ve got some strong personalities and some quiet personalities. They had a team dinner (Wednesday) night, and all they could talk about was how much fun they had together.”
Central takes to the road for their next two contests — traveling to Gaylord on Feb. 9 and Midland on Feb. 13 — before welcoming in crosstown rival Traverse City West on Feb. 16.
“Alpena is going to be tough. West is going to be tough. Gaylord, we only beat them by two the first time we played them,” Dutmers said. “We’re going to be focused on our defense and transition offense. We want to keep pressuring the ball.”
Petoskey’s two outside shooting threats — LaHaie and Haidyn Wegmann — combined for 27 points (13 from LaHaie and 14 from Wegmann) thanks to seven 3-pointers (four from LaHaie and three from Wegmann).
Petoskey now heads home for three straight games, starting with Mount Pleasant on Saturday.
“We showed some good spurts early, but (Central) is a good basketball team,” Shaw said. “Our girls will bounce back. I’m not worried about that.”