Chelsea’s upperclassmen girls come up big in senior night win over Dexter

CHELSEA, MI – Melissa Robards avenged two separate lowlights of her basketball playing career Friday in a 36-33 victory to conclude her final high school regular season.

The Chelsea senior not only found more scoring success against Dexter than earlier in the season, but she stayed true to her personal promise to connect from the free-throw line if she was ever given another chance at the end of a tight game.

“I haven’t been (in that situation) since my sophomore year when I missed them both,” Robards said. “I vowed to myself that I’d never miss both again.”

With a two-point lead and 15 seconds on the clock Friday, Robards was fouled, went to the line and split a pair to force Dexter to shoot from long range for any hope of overtime. The Dreadnaughts failed to score on the ensuing possession and Chelsea held on to win a share of the SEC White title.

Robards finished third on the team in scoring with eight points, behind Sam Jabara with 15 and Mckenzie Mykala with 11. Her performance was a relief after failing to register a point in her first meeting with Dexter this season.

“For Melissa, this was a big game for her being a senior and over there at Dexter she had a goose egg and she did not want to end her senior year that way,” said Chelsea coach Todd Blomquist. “I was proud to see her hit that big 3, which was huge at the time, and then hit a free throw to make them have to hit a 3.”

Her long-range bucket came in the third quarter after Dexter had outplayed and outscored Chelsea to cut their lead to four. The 3-pointer brought the crowd back into the game and allowed the Bulldogs to regain some momentum heading into the final quarter.

Robards said she felt more confident shooting than she did on Jan. 16, and the 3 was a matter of having an open look and finding her rhythm.

“I don’t know why but I kept my head down (last game) and wasn’t playing my game,” she said. “This time I knew I had to play differently to come out with the win.”

The Bulldogs had five seniors play their last regular season home game Friday, though none gave Dexter more trouble than Jabara.

Early on, the team's game plan of working the ball inside to the forward was clear. She scored five points in each of the first two quarters before Dexter found a way to slow her down.

“We knew they were going to try to go there with the basketball,” said Dexter coach Mike Bavineau. “She did a great job and got position. If you can force them to be a step off or to make the catch more difficult, it’s harder to score in rhythm. I thought in the second, third and fourth we did a much better job of that but overall she hurt us a lot on the glass, getting second chance points.”

Jabara added 11 rebounds to her game-high 15 points to lead the Bulldogs in both categories. She also shot 5-of-7 from the free-throw line.

Knowing she had the attention of Dexter’s bigs, Jabara said she rotated between taking the ball to the basket and kicking it back out to Mykala when the defenders began to swarm around her.

To her teammates, passing the ball inside to Jabara felt almost unstoppable.

“Sam’s been playing really well lately and no one can guard her on Dexter,” Robards said. “If we can get the ball to Sam, she can go up strong. She played great.”

Justin P. Hicks is a sports reporter and storyteller for MLive / The Ann Arbor News. If you have a unique story you'd like to share, you can reach me at jhicks3@mlive.com. I'm also on Twitter, Facebook and MLive.