By AMELIO RODRIGUEZ
Dowagiac Daily News

The Dowagiac Chieftains hosted the Paw Paw Redskins in a Wolverine Conference girls’ varsity basketball contest on Friday night.

The visitors managed to pull out a close, hard fought victory, 57-49.

The Redskins came into the game with a 16-3 record, 14-3 in conference play, while the Chieftains were 7-12 overall, 7-10 in the conference.

Based on the records, it shouldn’t have been much of a contest, but someone forgot to tell the Chieftains.

The first eight minutes of play came to an end with the teams tied 12-12. Dowagiac got six points from senior Torie Lowe in the quarter, while Paw Paw got eight points from junior Amber Hatfield.

The second quarter would see the Redskins score the first eight points of the quarter, jumping out to a 20-12 lead, only to see the Chieftains cut that lead down to 1 at 24-23 at the break.

Hatfield would once again lead the way for Paw Paw with four points, as Dowagiac got five points from senior Marcie Ennesser and four from senior Britnee Allerton.

After the break, the Redskins would outscore the Chieftains 13-9, with most of that damage coming from the free throw line. The Indians would sink 8-of-10 from the charity stripe in the quarter, while only putting in two field goals.

The Chieftains got four points from junior Kaisha Martin, while the Redskins got nine from senior Kendra Cook, who calmly sank 7-of-8 from the stripe.

The final eight minutes would see Paw Paw extend its lead to as many as 11 points, before Dowagiac would make a run of its own to cut the lead to 51-48 with 58 seconds remaining.
Paw Paw’s last six points would all come from the free throw line as they put on the finishing touches.

The visitors would shoot 10-of-12 from the stripe in the final stanza, while going 20-of-26 for the game.

The Chieftains would shoot 11-of-17 from the stripe for the game.

“I was proud of our effort. This is a team that beat us earlier this year by 26 points. They have had our number the last couple of years and I thought we played extremely well in places,” said Dowagiac coach Dick O’Day.

The home team got 14 points from Lowe, 12 from Ennesser and 10 from Martin, while the visitors were led by Cook with 17, Megan Pearson with 16 and Hatfield with 14.

Dowagiac will now host the Class B District Basketball Tournament beginning on Monday.
The Chieftains will face rival Lakeshore in the second game of the doubleheader.

PAW PAW 57
Megan Pearson 4 6-8 16, Emily Reidenbach 1 0-0 2, Kendra Cook 3 11-12 17, Amber Hatfield 7 0-2 14, Selena Martinez 2 1-2 6, Natalie Kmet 0 2-2 2. TOTALS: 17 20-26 57
DOWAGIAC 49
Marcie Ennesser 5 0-0 12, Torie Lowe 3 7-11 14, Kaisha Martin 4 2-4 10, Katie Lorenz 1 0-0 3, Britnee Allerton 3 2-2 8, Breneesha Jones 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 17 11-17 49

Paw Paw 12 24 37 57
Dowagiac 12 23 32 49
3-Pointers: Dowagiac 4 (Ennesser 2, Lowe, Lorenz) Paw Paw 3 (Pearson 2, Martinez). Total fouls: Paw Paw 15, Dowagiac 15. Fouled out: None. Varsity records: Paw Paw 17-3, 15-3 Wolverine: Dowagiac 7-13, 7-11 Wolverine