Dowagiac’s Dontel Highsmith received a standing ovation when he fouled out of Tuesday’s Wolverine Conference boys basketball game against Plainwell.

What brought the cheers was another great all-around performance from the 6-foot-2 junior. Highsmith scored 26 points, grabbed nine rebounds, dished out seven assists and had five steals to lead the Chieftains past the Trojans, 78-37.

Highsmith, who came in averaging 31 points a game, scored 56 points in Dowagiac’s 95-63 win over Plainwell earlier in the season.

“Dontel does what Dontel does,” said Dowagiac coach Danum Hunt, whose team improved to 11-3 overall and 9-1 in the Wolverine Conference. “Every night he goes hard and scores buckets. I think his defensive effort was a lot better tonight. We’ve been talking about him taking a leadership role on the defensive end and I think he did that tonight and that helped us as a team.”

Led by Highsmith’s defensive harrassment, Dowagiac’s fullcourt press forced Plainwell into 29 turnovers. Five of those turnovers came in the first minute, which forced Plainwell coach Dan Klein to call a time-out.

“That’s our strategy every game,” Hunt said. “We’re not big so we like to make teams play faster than they have to and play at an uncomfortable pace. We were able to do that early.”

Plainwell regrouped after the rough start and trailed only 19-15 after getting a basket from Jack Conklin with 6:48 left in the second quarter.

The Trojans wouldn’t get any closer as the Chieftains went on a 16-0 run to take a commanding 35-15 lead with 3:00 left before halftime.

“Our defensive intensity has really picked up,” Hunt said. “We were coming off a loss (against Buchanan) last week where we had defensive lapses. Tonight, we wanted to work on our defensive consistency. Once we’re able to get that rolling we’re a better team. Steals create offensive baskets and we were able to do that.”

Dowagiac stretched its lead to 44-21 with :22 left in the second quarter after getting an acrobatic basket in the paint from Davion Highsmith. Davion finished with 17 points.

To start the second half, Dontel Highsmith had a dunk to give the hosts a 46-23 lead and had a stylish one-handed assist pass to Brendon Murray to up the Chieftains lead to 48-23 with 6:16 left in the third quarter.

Dontel’s third and final dunk of the game gave Dowagiac a 73-32 lead with 3:35 left in the game.

Tyler Clark scored nine points and grabbed five rebounds for the Chieftains, while Craig Zebell totaled eight points and four steals. All nine players that played for Dowagiac scored.

Conklin scored 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead Plainwell. The Trojans outrebounded the Chieftains, 33-28. Dowagiac began the game with a 12-2 deficit on the boards.

“We’re small so we’re always working to get better on the rebounding end,” Hunt said. “I think our defensive rotations towards the end of the second quarter into the fourth we rotated down to try to get into position to have two guys box-out and I think we did a little better job (rebounding).”

PLAINWELL 37

Konner Westerhouse 0 2-2 2, Grant Pell 0 0-0 0, Jack Conklin 9 1-4 19, Austin Lutz 0 0-0 0, Justin DeBruyne 1 0-0 2, Jason McCauslin 0 0-0 0, Cody Howrigon 0 1-2 1, James Matlock 2 2-3 6, Ryan Pell 0 1-2 1, Tommy Darby 0 1-2 1, Burt Murgittroyd 1 0-0 2, Nick Adams 0 0-1 0, Ian Norlin 1 0-0 3. TOTALS: 14 8-16 37

DOWAGIAC 78

Dontel Highsmith 10 6-7 26, Eric Charles 2 0-0 4, Tyler Clark 4 0-0 9, Brendon Murray 1 1-2 3, Craig Zebell 4 0-0 8, Gavin Taylor 3 1-2 7, Davion Highsmith 8 1-2 17, Todd McIntyre 1 0-0 2, Matt Smith 1 0-2 2. TOTALS: 34 9-15 78

Plainwell 13 23 26 37

Dowagiac 17 44 61 78

3-point baskets: Plainwell 1 (Norlin), Dowagiac 1 (Clark). Total fouls (fouled out): Plainwell 9 (none), Dowagiac 17 (D. Highsmith). Shooting: Plainwell 14-of-41 for 34-percent, Dowagiac 34-of-59 for 58-percent. Rebounding: Plainwell 33 (Conklin 7), Dowagiac 28 (Highsmith 9). Turnovers: Plainwell 29, Dowagiac 9. Varsity records: Plainwell 5-10, 4-7 Wolverine; Dowagiac 11-3, 9-1 Wolverine. J.V. score: Plainwell 32, Dowagiac 29