Coming off the emotional high of a sellout crowd and a battle for first place left the Dowagiac boys basketball team without much left in the tank Tuesday night.

But as good teams do, the Chieftains were able to find a way to get it done.

Dowagiac defeated visiting Sturgis 58-43 in a Wolverine Conference non-divisional contest to improve to 13-2 on the year.

Despite looking a bit leg weary, the Chieftains were able to connect from long range as they canned nine 3-pointers.

Dowagiac was also able to turn up the tempo in the second quarter and force turnovers that led to easy baskets.

“Yeah, we got off to a slow start,” Dowagiac coach Danum Hunt said. “We picked it up a bit in the second quarter, but it was a flat game for us. There was not a lot of energy or a lot of intensity. We were able to pick up the tempo a bit and that helped push through and get the win at the end.”

Sturgis jumped out to a 4-0 lead and it took Dowagiac until there were just 43 ticks left on the clock to catch the Trojans at 11-11 following Harry Reed’s third 3-pointer of the quarter.

Dowagiac turned up the pressure in the second quarter and outscored Sturgis (9-7) 15-5 to take a 28-18 lead into halftime.

As they did in the first quarter, the Trojans scored the first two buckets of the second half to cut the lead to 28-22.

Brandon Winchester-Jones pushed the lead back to 10 points (34-24) with just under five minutes to play in the third quarter and another two 3-pointers by Reed gave the Chieftains 45-28 advantage with less than a minute to play in the period.

Dowagiac scored 12 points in the final eight minutes, which were enough to hold off the Trojans, who despite outscored the Chieftains, were not able to overcome the third quarter deficit.

Dowagiac took the air out of the ball a bit in the fourth quarter to control the tempo.

“We wanted to come out and take what the defense gave us,” Hunt said. “We wanted to work (Keoante) Blackamore in the post a bit and get him some work. The guys seemed to still be a little tired from Friday night and a little lackadaisical, so for us to get out of here with a win tonight was big.”

Reed, who finished with seven 3-pointers, led all scores with 22 points. Dowagiac also got 13 points from Winchester-Jones and six points from Bryce Dodd.

Jack Scheske led the Trojans with 10 points. He was the lone Sturgis player to reach double figures.

Dowagiac is home again Friday night as it hosts Berrien Springs with a chance to lock up the outright West Division championship.

Tip-off is set for approximately 7 p.m.

 

DOWAGIAC 58, STURGIS 43

Sturgis 43

Brandon Wetzel 0, Jacob Cline 0, Tristen Stewart 0, Jack Scheske 10, Andrew Airgood 7, Liam Adams 9, Brandon Anderson 0, Matthew Polzin 8, Ryan Schuller 9. TOTALS: 17 5-9 43

Dowagiac 58

Daquan Brooks 5, Harry Reed 22, Bryce Dodd 6, Brandon Winchester-Jones 13, DeYonte Sullivan 3, Leroy Lewis 3, Josh Lamphere 0, Dameon Snead 0, Keoante Blackamore 6. TOTALS: 20 9-15 58

 

Sturgis            13       18       28       43

Dowagiac        13       28       46       58

3-point baskets: Sturgis 4 (Airgood, Adams 3), Dowagiac 9 (Reed 7, Dodd, Winchester-Jones). Total fouls (fouled out): Sturgis 15 (none), Dowagiac 10 (none). Varsity records: Sturgis 9-7, Dowagiac 13-2