TRAVERSE CITY — Wednesday’s win presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Traverse City Central, a team loaded with juniors and underclassmen, largely weren’t even born yet the last time the Trojans girls basketball program won a district championship.
TC Central, which last won a district in 2006, earned the right to play for one with a 58-34 victory against rival Traverse City West in Wednesday’s Division 1 girls basketball district semifinal at Traverse City West.
Bonus: The Trojans play Friday’s district final at home against Alpena, a team they’ve beaten twice this season.
“It’s been a while, so it’d be fun to do it at home,” said TCC junior point guard Jakiah Brumfield, who put up 12 points, six assists, four steals and two blocks. “Alpena is a tough one. We match up extremely well with them. But if we play our game, we’ll be perfectly fine. Confident, but not cocky.”
Central knocked off Alpena by 15 less than two weeks ago, although the Wildcats and Trojans played to a three-point margin in early February. Alpena beat Gaylord 46-31 Wednesday.
“They’ve got a really good big inside,” Central head coach Jen Dutmers said. “They’ve got two seniors leading them and they’re both shooters, they’re smart. They’re always tough to beat.”
TC Central (17-5) won by eight and 22 points in two regular-season matchups with TC West (9-15).
Both defenses ruled early on, with the first field goal taking almost three minutes of game play, coming on a Marlie McGregor 3-pointer at 5:12.
Central led 16-7 after one quarter and 21-8 before a 9-2 Titans spurt led by four from Grace Bohrer and a Lily Smith triple put West within six. TCC took a 27-21 lead into halftime.
An 18-0 run that spilled over from the third quarter into the fourth gave Central a 26-point lead with seven minutes remaining, 49-23. Madyson Sebela and Mikayla Thompson scored the next seven points for West to get the lead back under 20.
“We’re playing our best basketball,” Dutmers said. “Nobody took this game for granted, but after that game against Muskegon last week, I was pretty pumped to come in here tonight. We’re playing the way we want to be playing right now.”
Marlie McGregor tied Brumfield for the game-high with 12 points, all on 3-pointers. Lucia France had another big game for Central, pouring in nine points and 15 rebounds, while post teammate Lorelai Zielinski had six points, seven boards and two steals.
“Kasen (Kitzmiller), Lucy (Bongiorno) played some great defense,” Dutmers said. “Jakiah and Lucia always play good defense. Kylie Ball played great D against Thompson. Lorelai is under the bucket just grabbing rebounds.”
The Trojans hit nine 3-pointers — four from McGregor, three by Brumfield and two from Annie Goldkuhle.
“We really shot well from behind the arc today and it was a team effort from behind the arc,” Brumfield said. “Being a young team, nobody’s played in districts except me and Lucia and Liz (Phillips, the team’s only senior). So this kind of got rid of our nerves on the playoff side of things and we can just focus on the basketball part of it now.”
If the Trojans win Friday, they could head to Cadillac to face Midland Dow and then Muskegon in regionals, two teams they lost to recently (Dow by 19 Feb. 20 and Muskegon by two last week in overtime).
“We struggled a little bit at the beginning of the season,” Brumfield said, “but we’re really just bonding and everything’s starting to gel really nicely together.”
West’s last win over Central came in the first meeting of the 2021-22 season. Since then, Central won seven straight, including their last district meeting in 2022.
The two TC programs met in the playoffs only six times since the 2009 season, with TC Central taking all but one of those. The Trojans hold a 20-15 series lead since 2009, but a more commanding 17-5 mark since 2015.
Thompson led the Titans with nine points, while Bohrer scored eight, Sebela seven and Smith five.
“We just didn’t hit any shots,” first-year TC West coach Deb Prichard said. “We didn’t just didn’t shoot well and they shot great. It was the difference. But to their (Central’s) credit, they played good defense and they made it hard.”
With a coaching change right before the season, the Titans posted one-third of their nine victories in the last two weeks, coming into Wednesday’s semifinal on a three-game win streak that included a 47-44 win Monday in Marquette.
“We came a long, long ways,” Prichard said. “We really did. Our kids never quit. They showed up every day and they worked and they worked. I’m really super proud of them for that.”
The Titans lose six seniors to graduation — Makayla Thompson, Madyson Sebela, Lily Smith, Audrey LaFaive, Avery Esper and Calli Hathaway. But they also return two sophomore starters in forward Grace Bohrer and guard Emily Kelsey and hope to have junior Reagan LaCross back from injury next season.
“Mikayla was always a leader out there, literally,” Prichard said. “Smith plays so hard on defense as well. She’s really intense and as a leader with the way she plays. Then in the post we had Audrey LaFaive and Madison Sebela. They were strong in there. Avery Esper came in he did a nice job helping handle the ball.”