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BERRIEN SPRINGS — The Niles girls basketball team fought off a second-half comeback by Dowagiac and held on for a thrilling 47-43 Division 2 district quarterfinals win at Berrien Springs Monday.

Niles (7-16) advances to face Edwardsburg (13-9) in Wednesday’s first semifinal at 5:30 p.m. 

Buchanan, now 13-10, ran past Benton Harbor 46-15 in the other contest, and will meet Berrien Springs (16-4) in the second semifinal at 7 p.m. Winners play in the finals at 7 p.m. Friday.

Niles’ second-year head coach Sarah Workman was the first to admit afterwards that her team didn’t play its best game. The Vikings had beaten the Chieftains by 31 points in the season opener.

“We had to battle and definitely didn’t play our best game tonight. We got outrebounded and shot poorly from the free-throw line. There’s alot of things we have to work on tommorrow in practice before we play Edwardsburg Wednesday. At halftime we told our kids to stay disciplined, continue playing good defense and do a better job rebounding the basketball. Our awareness of where their shooters were was poor, but we survived and we’re going to keep fighting,” Workman said. 

After a tightly contested first half, Niles used a late second-quarter push and solid third quarter in building an 18-point (35-17) lead after Maddie Zache drained a key three pointer for the Vikings. 

A 7-0 Dowagiac run near the end of the third closed the Chieftains’ deficit to nine, 35-26. A deuce from Zache and pair of free throws from Tanaya Brown put the Vikings up by 11, 39-28 entering the fourth quarter. 

Dowagiac’s 9-0 run to start the final period cut the Niles lead to just one basket, 39-37. Keying the Chieftains’ surge were Olivia McIntosh with a triple and Niya Moss who scored with four points. 

A layup by Jessie Thornton put Niles up 41-37. Dowagiac answered moments later after freshman forward Bree Campbell nailed a pressure-packed three pointer to lessen the Chieftains’ deficit to just one point, 41-40 with 3:25 left. 

Kayla Kiggins hit the first of three free-throw attempts to give Niles a 42-40 advantage. Brown’s putback a few seconds later put the Vikings up 44-40 with 1:51 to go. Ali Gerrits hit the first of two charity tosses to extend the Vikings’ lead to 45-40. Campbell, however, would drain another triple to pull the Chieftains within two, 45-43 with 28.7 seconds left.

Thornton was fouled moments later and swished both free-throw attempts to give Niles the four-point win.

Dowagiac first-year head coach Craig Schau was proud of his team’s effort this time around against Niles. 

“We let her (Thornton) get a little wild on us there in the first half. She scored 17 there and is a real good ballplayer. I’m super proud of our girls though. We haven’t won a ton of ballgames this season, but they’ve never given up. We talked at halftime about the things we can control with our effort and good on ball and gap defense. We came out of our zone in the second half with a solid man-to-man defense and it helped. We hit some shots in the clutch to get back in it. It was just great to see the good fight from these kids,” Schau said. 

The lead exchanged hands for a duration of the opening period. Thornton’s free throw with 2:44 left tied the contest at 10-10. Niles finished the first quarter with a 6-0 run including consecutive steals and layups from Thornton to give the Vikings a 16-10 advantage. 

Thornton got another steal and layup to ignite the Niles’ attack to begin the second quarter and put her ballclub in front 18-10. The Vikings went on to outscore the Chieftains 11-5 in the period  in building a 27-15 halftime lead.

Thornton poured in a game-high 24 points for Niles, including making 8-of-11 free-throw attempts. Brown scored nine points, Zache added seven and Kiggins finished with six points.  

Niles shot 16-of-48 (33.3 percent) fron the floor and made 13-of-28 (46.4 percent) free-throw attempts. 

Moss came off the bench to lead Dowagiac in scoring with 13, while Marlie Carpenter scored nine, Claire Hess and Campbell added six apiece and Evie Lock scored five.

The Chieftains made 14-of-54 (26 percent) field-goal attempts and went 11-of-19 (58 percent) at the free-throw stripe.

Dowagiac outrebounded Niles 35-26. 

Carpenter pulled down 12 rebounds for the Lady Chieftains, while McIntosh snagged five and Moss and Hess grabbed four each. 

Niles was led on the boards by Gerrits with 10 and Brown added five. 

Thornton added nine steals for the Vikings. 

Schau was pleased with the growth he saw from his squad as the season progressed. The Lady Chieftains will graduate just one senior, Brenna Mott. Returning next season for Dowagiac will be four seniors, three juniors and three sophomores.

“We’re sad to see our one senior Brenna leave. We are looking forward to a great offseason and jelling and learning the same language. The future is bright and I’m excited to be part of Dowagiac girls basketball. It was my first season so I’m looking forward to getting to know our players better and what they are capable of,” Schau said. 

Buchanan 46, Benton Harbor 15

Following a bit of a slow start, Buchanan jumped out to a big early lead before cruising to a lopsided win over winless Benton Harbor (0-17).

The Lady Bucks built a 12-2 advantage after the opening eight minutes and stretched that advantage to 20, 28-8 entering halftime. 

A combination of outside and inside shots and free throws helped Buchanan maintain a comfortable lead at 37-13 lead  entering the fourth quarter. 

“It took awhile for us to get into our rythmn and we had a little lapse of energy. Offensivey I thought we moved the ball very well, especially in the second half. We just have to build on this because we have a tough challenge on Wednesday with Berrien Springs. They’ve already beaten us twice and I know the girls don’t want that to happen again,” said Buchanan’s first-year coach Alex Austin. 

Justyce Cashier paced Buchanan in scoring with 12 points. Kate Ailes and Caitlin Horvath contributed nine apiece, while Aspen Berry added six. 

The Bucks finished the contest shooting 13-of-52 (25 percent) from the floor and 14-of-29 (48.2 percent) at the free-throw line. 

Buchanan outrebounded Benton Harbor 30-20. 

Ailes had eight rebounds for the Lady Bucks, while Cashier had five and Maddie Young and Akirrah Robinson added four boards each. 

Benton Harbor was led in scoring by Cakeira Baxter with eight points.

Javie Swift had nine rebounds for Benton Harbor.