ALLEGAN — It took overtime for the Dowagiac boys’ basketball team to earn a season opening victory Friday night.

The Chieftains outscored host Allegan 17-6 in the extra session to pull away to a 62-51 Wolverine Conference victory.

The Chieftains, who played without point guard Dontel Highsmith, grabbed a 16-13 lead after one quarter of play and stretched it to 31-23 by halftime.

The Tigers were able to cut the lead to 33-30 in the third quarter as they held Dowagiac to just two points. Allegan continued to cut into the Chieftains’ advantage and after holding a 15-12 advantage in scoring in the final quarter, forced overtime as the two teams were deadlocked at 45-45 at the end of regulation.

Tyler Clark hit a 3-pointer to start overtime and Dowagiac never looked back as it pulled away to the win.

Darius Wilson led the Chieftains with 18 points and eight rebounds. Dowagiac also got 13 points from Tremail Butcher and 10 points from Troy Butcher. D.J. Hunt added eight points and six rebounds.

“Well take it,” Dowagiac coach Danum Hunt said. “We started off a little slow, but we picked it up defensively and rebounding-wise we picked it up. We kind of struggled a little bit offensively tonight. But in the end when we needed to hit shots, we hit them.”

The Chieftains outrebounded the Tigers 24-19.

Anton Jackson, Steve Rasmussen and Tanner Boysen all scored 10 points for Allegan.

 

DOWAGIAC 62

Darius Wilson 18, Brendon Murray 1, Jason Turner 3, Tremail Butcher 13, Chris Craft 4, D.J. Hunt 8, Tyler Clark 5, Troy Butcher 10. TOTALS: 20 17-26

ALLEGAN 51

Evan Eichinger 2, Lucas Barts 8, Spencer Vasquez 4, Dylan Van Lear 2, Shaquile Hill 4, Anton Jackson 10, Joe Hinton 1, Steve Rasmussen 10, Tanner Boysen 10. TOTALS: 15 18-30 51

 

Dowagiac 16 31 33 45 62

Allegan 13 23 30 45 51

3-point baskets: Dowagiac 5 (Tre. Butcher, Wilson, Clark, Craft, Turner), Allegan 3 (Barts 2, Jackson). Total fouls (fouled out): Dowagiac 26 (Tro. Butcher), Allegan 22 (Vasquez). Varsity records: Dowagiac 1-0, 1-0 Wolverine; Allegan x-x, 0-1 Wolverine

 

Dowagiac…56

Allegan…48

A career-high 29 points from Kaisha Martin kept Dowagiac undefeated Friday night.

The Chieftains defeated Allegan 56-48 in Wolverine Conference action..

Dowagiac slowly pulled away throughout the contest, leading 11-10 after the opening quarter and 26-23 at halftime. The Chieftains increased its advantage to five points (37-32) heading into the final quarter where Dowagiac outscored Allegan 19-16 to earn the eight-point win.

Besides Martin’s offensive output, the Chieftains also got 10 points from Kelsie Primley and eight points from Haley Pegan.

“On thing we wanted to improve on from our first game was our rebounding,” Dowagiac coach Emily McLoughlin said. “We did a much better job of that against Allegan. Our extra effort and hustle on the boards led to some easy baskets. This was a good team win for us. The team played hard for 32 minutes.”

Cori Steinman led the Tigers with 15 points. Blair Arthur added eight.

 

DOWAGIAC 56

Katie Lorenz 3, Kelsie Primley 10, Kaisha Martin 29, Haley Pegan 8, Carly Polomcak 0, Breneesha Jones 3, Regina Kennedy 3. TOTALS: 21 12-25 56

ALLEGAN 48

Melissa Jennings 0, Blair Arthur 8, Kailey Kent 7, Corrie Wolthuis 2, Christin Drozd 6, Hope Thompson 0, Jasmine Wright 8, Deidre Smith 0, Cori Steinman 15, Megan Nicks 2, Kristin Pennock 0. TOTAL: 22 2-5 48

 

Dowagiac 11 26 37 56

Allegan 10 23 32 48

3-point goals: Dowagiac 2 (Lorenz, Prinley), Allegan 2 (Kent, Steinman). Varsity records: Allegan 0-4, 0-2 Wolverine; Dowagiac 2-0, 2-0 Wolverine