The Chieftains hosted the Bulldogs of Otsego in girls’ varsity basketball action on Thursday and fell in a heartbreaker, 43-41.

The shooting inside the Dowagiac gymnasium was nearly as frigid as the temperatures outside the school early on in the contest as both teams struggled shooting the basketball on the way to an 8-8 tie after the first eight minutes of play.

The Chieftains were led by Kaisha Martin with six of the team’s eight points, while Katie Lorenz chipped in the other two.

Otsego was a little more balanced as they had four players score in the quarter.

Over the next eight minutes both teams started to warm up a little bit, but neither team could pull away from the other.

In the second quarter Dowagiac’s Carly Polomcak led the way scoring all seven of her points in the period, while Martin knocked in four more and Lorenz drained a bomb from behind the arc.

Otsego would outscore the home team 16-14 in the quarter as it took a 24-22 lead into the break, led by Shannon Nichols’ four points.

Nichols would hurt herself in the period and would play sparingly over the remainder of the game, which proved crucial for the visitors.

Otsego was already playing without their leading scorer, and the Wolverine Conference’s third leading scorer, Molly Sleeman, who was at home with mono. Sleeman averages over 15 points a game, and has average 24 points over their last three games. To lose Nichols on top of that left Otsego with a lot of young players in the game.

After the break both teams came out ice cold in the shooting department, as each team would only score four points consisting of one basket and two free throws for both teams.

Martin scored all four of Dowagiac’s points in the third quarter, while Nichols would return to sink to free throws to give Otsego the 28-26 lead heading into the final stanza.

Lorenz would set the pace early in the final stanza for the Chieftains as she would knock down back-to-back 3-point baskets to start the quarter, followed by a Kelsie Primley free throw the Chieftains had a 33-28 lead with just over six minutes to play in the game.

Otsego would score its first basket of the period with just over five minutes left to play. Dowagiac was unable to extend the lead and Otsego’s Taylor Smith and Paige Koshar each scored to tie the game at 33 each. Kelsey Owens scored on a put-back with 2:30 to play to give the visitors the lead 35-33 with just over two minutes remaining.

Six free throws over the last minute and a half of the game, including two more from Nichols that gave the visitors a five-point advantage proved to be enough as Martin knocked down a 3-pointer from well behind the arc at the horn to make the final score 43-41.

Martin led all scorers with 19, while Lorenz chipped in 12, and Polomcak had seven. Koshar led Otsego with 12, Nichols had eight and Smith had seven.

Dowagiac falls to 2-5 on the season, and will travel to Vicksburg on Friday night.