It has been a pretty good beginning of the season for several of our area boys’ basketball teams.

Niles and Brandywine are both off to 2-0 starts, while the Dowagiac Chieftains opened up with a comfortable victory last Friday night.

I have gotten to see both games that the Vikings have played and I can tell you right now, that if they continue to bring the same energy level each and every night, Niles is going to be tough to beat.

I didn’t think the Vikings could shoot better than they did last Tuesday night in their season-opening win over Portage Central, but they did and it wasn’t even close.

Niles shot 53 percent from the floor against the Mustangs and then turned it up another notch and connected on 60 percent of its shots against Benton Harbor Friday night.

The Vikings had the Tigers down early and never took their foot off the gas, finishing with a 20-point win.

I knew going into the season that Niles would be a contender for the Big 16 Conference West Division championship this year and after two games it has only solidified my opinion.

But there are plenty of challenges out there for the Vikings. They still have to play Lakeshore and Kalamazoo Central, the two-time defending state champions, twice.

Those should be some very entertaining and exciting games and I cannot wait to see them.

The Brandywine Bobcats may have lost their main scorer and rebounder from last season in Jacob Frazier, but the team looks to be spreading the points around well after the first week of the season.

Wins over Marcellus and Cassopolis have the Bobcats full of confidence heading into tonight’s contest against defending Lakeland Conference champion Bridgman.

The Bees are off to a slow start after suffering heavy graduation losses, but Brandywine can ill afford to overlook Bridgman tonight.

A victory tonight would give the Bobcats one more conference victory than they had all of last season.

Last year Dowagiac coach Danum Hunt and I joked around about how many points junior Dontel Highsmith would have to score this season for the Chieftains to be successful.

Hunt threw out the number 40 and I guess I should have believed hin.

The talented point guard poured in 42 points Friday night as the Chieftains opened their season with a 72-60 victory over Allegan.

The Tigers tried to play man-to-man against Highsmith, which is not going to work.

There are not too many players who can individually guard him and those who will try that philosophy will probably have a similar number entered next to his name in the scoring column.

I fully expect to see most of the teams Dowagiac will play this season to use some sort of “junk” defense against him much in the same way that Torie Lowe did her senior year a few seasons back.

It’s going to take more than one person to slow down Highsmith, who loves to drive to the basket.

I think you will see teams trying to sit back in a zone and force the Chieftains to shoot from the outside.

It will be important from here on out for Dowagiac to establish a perimeter game if it wants to free-up their talented guard to have some lanes to drive through.

It is going to be fun watching this young team develop an identity as the season marches on.

I think Dowagiac will compete for the Wolverine Conference championship despite its overall lack of experience and having to play without D.J. Hunt for an extended period of time.

Get out and watch these team. You won’t be disappointed.

Scott Novak is sports editor for Leader Publications. He can reached at Scott.novak@leaderpub.com.