• Related: Manchester dominates previously undefeated Niles Brandywine to advance to Class C semifinal

By Eric Hammis, Mlive Media Group

JONESVILLE, MI - With the Manchester girls basketball team needing a boost, a go-to person to get it going, the smart money would have been on its seniors.

But spark that ignited the Flying Dutch Tuesday night was not McKenna Erkfritz or Taylor Manders, each of whom entered the game averaging more than 14 points a game.

Instead, the Flying Dutch got lift-off from reserve forward Maddie Collins.

With Manchester trailing by seven points early in the second quarter, the 5-foot-10 sophomore came off the bench scored 10 of her team’s next 15 points, and assisted on the other two baskets in that time, sparking the Flying Dutch to a 67-43 win.

“I just kept getting the ball inside and kept pounding it in,” Collins said. “We got steals, I ran the court and my teammates just got the ball to me.

“This is the probably the biggest high school performance I’ve ever had,” she added, “so it was a pleasure to have such a big game at such a great time.”

Collins finished the night with 18 points with six field goals, and 6-of-8 shooting at the free throw line.

“I told her in warm-up, ‘Maddie, take it to the hole. Take it to the hole.’ And that’s what she friggin’ did,” said Taylor Manders. “That is the best basketball I’ve ever seen her play and I’ve been watching her because she and my sister have been playing forever and this is the best game I’ve seen her play in her life.”

Collins’ second-quarter performance was just what the doctor ordered for the Flying Dutch as Manchester trailed from the game’s opening minute until Collins’ basket with 5:34 to play in the second quarter gave the Flying Dutch their first lead since the game’s first bucket.

Even after Collins’ second-quarter explosion, she wasn’t through.

With 2:42 left in the third quarter, Collins made a nice move in the post for a bucket, extending Manchester’s lead to 10 points. She followed that with a pair of free throws late in the fourth quarter to give the Flying Dutch a 62-41 lead.

“That was her best game of the season and it was just time for her to show,” Manchester coach Cori Kastel said. “Maddie has done her job all season getting in there and cleaning up the junk, but tonight was her night to put the points on the board.

“She definitely pushed herself right to the limit tonight.”

Thanks to Collins, Manchester secured the program’s first berth into the state semifinal where it will play Riverview Gabriel Richard Thursday at 1 p.m. in East Lansing’s Breslin Center.

“It’s going to be nerve-wracking, but this gym and atmosphere was really hyped and we overcame that,” Collins said. “This was a good game to come off of into the Breslin Center.”