By By AMELIO RODRIGUEZ / Dowagiac Daily News
It started out as a night to honor the five seniors on the Chieftain girls' basketball team, it ended with a lopsided score on the score board, and the visiting team doing the celebrating, led by a senior of their own.
The visiting Lady Blue Devils of Gull Lake came to Dowagiac with a 16-1 record, and were coming off their first loss of the season at the hands of Battle Creek Lakeview.
Dowagiac was just trying to find a way to send the Blue Devils home with a two-game losing streak.
The Chieftains found themselves down 7-0 early before finally getting on the scoreboard from the charity stripe. Dowagiac struggled from the field in the first quarter, only going one for six, but would use three of four from the foul line to help keep them in the game.
Down 13-5 after one period, junior guard Torie Lowe was doing all she could to keep the Chieftains in the game. She scored all five points in the opening period, and scored another nine in the second period.
Dowagiac went to the half only down 29-21 to a team that clearly outmatched them.
The second half showed just how overmatched the Chieftains were.
Though the weather outside was frigid, the shooting of the Blue Devils was just warming up. Gull Lake outscored Dowagiac 22-10 in the third period as it was a perfect in the period, going 9-for-9 from the floor, and 4-for-4 from the stripe, led by senior Jessie Eckler's eight of her team-high 19 points.
But it got worse for Dowagiac as it was then outscored 21-2 in the final period as it only connected on 1-of-7 shooting.
Meanwhile, Gull Lake continued to stroke the ball well, including 3-of-5 from behind the arc, which didn't sit well with the home crowd since the game was well out of reach by that point.
Dowagiac would finish 12-for-31 in field goal attempts including 1-for-8 from behind the arc, while Gull Lake would go 28-for -45 including 6-for-15 from behind the arc.
Dowagiac was led by Lowe with a game-high 22 points, junior Andrea Bradshaw with five, and senior Tasia Diaz and Kayleigh Hutchings each chipping in with two.
Dowagiac coach Dick O'Day said he knew the girls would have their hands full with Gull Lake coming in off their first loss of the season, but was pleased with the way his girls played in the first half, and just wished they could have knocked down a few more shots early on.
"It was close at the half, and we had actually cut the lead to four, but they obviously had more gas in the tank then we did," he said "They knocked down the shots and we didn't, but we played a good first half, but they are a good team, and we knew we had our hands full tonight, especially with them coming in off that loss the other night."
The Dowagiac freshmen basketball team was also defeated by Gull Lake Thursday night.
The Lady Blue Devils defeated the Chieftains 59-27.
Carly Polomcak led Dowagiac with eight points. The Chieftains also got six points from Jacoya Brookins and four points each from Alyssa Groth and Regina Kennedy.
GULL LAKE 72
Jess Eckler 19, Alex Aalamone 11, Megan Grimes 10, Tina Fisher 7, Molly Maddox 6, Katey Langstrom 5, Haley Adamski 4, Nichole Joyner 3, Abby Ahlert 3, Christin Curtis 2, Melanie Kasten 2, Emily Owen 0. TOTALS: 28 10-18 72
DOWAGIAC 33
Torie Lowe 22, Andrea Bradshaw 5, Kaisha Martin 2, Kayleigh Hutchings 2, Tasia Diaz 2, Marcie Ennesser 0, Brittany Gnatz 0, Cierra Mattix 0, Tori Shank 0, Katie Wood 0. TOTALS: 12 8-13 33
Gull Lake 13 29 51 72
Dowagiac 5 21 31 33
3-point goals: Gull Lake 6 (Salamone 3, Eckler, Langstrom, Ahlert), Dowagiac 1 (Lowe). Total fouls (fouled out): Gull Lake 11 (none), Dowagiac 16 (none)