By AMELIO RODRIGUEZ
Dowagiac Daily News

A quick start by the Dowagiac boys’ basketball team proved to be too much for visiting Paw Paw Friday night.

The Chieftains built up a 10-point lead after one period of play and went on to defeat the Redskins 68-55 in a Wolverine Conference contest.

The home team would jump out to a 6-0 lead to start the action and would never look back. The Chieftains would take a 19-9 lead after the first period of play led by Damone Huff and Tremail Butcher with five points apiece, while four other Chieftains would find the scorebook too in the quarter.

The home team would be outscored in the second quarter 13-12, but the Chieftains would still go to the break with a 31-22 lead.

Dowagiac came out of the break and saw its lead trimmed to five, 33-28 before back-to-back 3-point baskets by Huff and Butcher would extend the lead back to double digits.

The Chieftains would outscore the Redskins 15-10 in the third period, once again led by Huff and Butcher with five points each.

The final period of play turned into a 3-point-barrage as both teams would combine for six baskets from behind the arc, including four consecutive from the Chieftains.

Dowagiac would once again be outscored 13-12, but it wasn’t enough, as the Chieftains would take the win.

On the night, the Chieftains would knock down as many 3-point baskets as they would regular baskets as they hit 11 of each.

“Every player on this team can shoot and we spend a lot of time shooting every day just for the type of offense that we run. The guys were on tonight and when they are hitting, that always helps,” said Dowagiac coach Danum Hunt.

The Chieftains were led by Huff with 14 points, freshman Dontel Highsmith with 13, Butcher with 12 and Darius Wilson with 11.

Paw Paw was led by Nolan Snyder with 13, while Max Fields and Luke Vavra would contribute 12 each.

PAW PAW 55
Andrew Buskirk 1 2-2 4, Nolan Snyder 4 2-2 13, Julian Butler 0 5-5 5, Anthony Peterson 1 0-0 3, Max Field 5 2-5 12, Luke Vavra 5 1-2 12, Nick Serbenski 2 0-0 4, Ben Steiber 1 0-1 2. TOTALS: 19 12-17 55
DOWAGIAC 68
Dontel Highsmith 3 6-8 13, Andrew Cripe 1 0-0 3, Jason Turner 2 1-2 7, Chris Craft 1 1-2 4, Tremail Butcher 5 0-1 12, Darius Wilson 4 1-2 11, Damone Huff 5 2-2 14, Cody Cox 0 2-2 2, Pierre Reed 1 0-0 2. TOTALS: 22 13-20 68

Paw Paw 9 22 32 55
Dowagiac 19 31 46 68
3-pointer baskets: Dowagiac 11 (Turner 2, Butcher 2, Wilson 2, Huff 2, Craft, Cripe, Highsmith)  Paw Paw 5 (Snyder 3, Peterson, Vavra). Total fouls: Paw Paw 18, Dowagiac 17. Fouled out: None. Varsity records: Paw Paw 5-13, 3-13 Wolverine; Dowagiac 5-13, 5-11 Wolverine