By By SCOTT NOVAK / Dowagiac Daily News
The Dowagiac varsity basketball team took a step forward Friday night despite not coming home with a victory.
First-year Chieftain coach Greg Blomgren felt his team played well on the road against Coldwater and gave itself a chance to win at the end.
Unfortunately Dowagiac fell to the host Cardinals, 62-56, in a Big 16 Conference non-divisional contest.
The game was the first in 11 days for Coldwater due to weather. The Cardinals looked a bit rusty, especially shooting the ball from the field, which allowed the Chieftains to stay close throughout.
Coldwater held a 16-15 advantage after one period of play and was up 29-27 at the intermission.
Dowagiac (5-7) outscored the Cardinals 13-10 in the third quarter to take a one point lead into the final eight minutes.
The Chieftains led by three points in the fourth quarter before Coldwater was able to overtake Dowagiac.
Free throw shooting also played a factor late in the contest as the Chieftains missed some opportunities.
Dowagiac has been a pretty solid shooting free throw team much of this season, but was just 10-of-18 from the stripe Friday night.
Coldwater was 18-of-26 from the line.
Dowagiac connected on 10 three-pointers Friday night, including seven by senior Richie Burling who scored a career-high 25 points.
Going into the game Dowagiac wanted to focus on transition defense and rebounding.
Blomgren, after a quick time out early in the game, was pleased with both.
Blomgren called a 30-second time out in the first quarter to make sure that Dowagiac was getting back on transition. After that time out he felt the squad did a good job in both phases of the contest.
Besides Burling's 25 points, Dowagiac also got 15 points from Jeff Cooper and five points each from Davey Moran and Duane Davis.
Coldwater was led by Koby Stempien's 18 points. Spencer Mathews added 10 points.
Dowagiac will return to action on Tuesday when it hosts Portage Northern in a make-up game from Tuesday, Jan, 27.
Tip-off is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
Portage Northern is coming off a 53-29 win over Sturgis Friday night.
The Huskies were led by Andrew Holms' 17 points. Matt Andrews added 11.
Portage Northern (3-6) held Sturgis to 12 points in the first half.
COLDWATER 62
Chase Haylett 0 0-0 0, Derrick McFarland 0 0-0 0, Cory Goward 3 2-2 9, Spencer Mathews 3 4-7 10, Tylor Asher 1 0-0 2, Drew Kibiloski 2 1-4 7, Joe Haberl 2 2-2 6, Mike Severn 1 5-6 7, Josh Stauffer 1 0-0 3, Koby Stempien 7 4-5 18. Totals: 20 18-26 62.
DOWAGIAC 56
Davey Moran 2 0-2 5, Dustin Shaffer 1 1-2 3, Duane Davis 1 2-4 5, Jeff Cooper 5 4-6 15, Jamere Bacon 0 0-0 0, Richie Burling 8 2-2 25, Landon Reed 1 0-0 2, Christopher Primley 1-2 1. Totals: 18 10-18 56.
Coldwater 16 13 10 13 -- 62
Dowagiac 15 12 13 16 -- 56
Three-point basketball: Dowagiac 10 (Davis, Moran, Cooper, Burling 7), Coldwater 4 (Goward, Kibiloski 2, Stauffer). Total fouls: Dowagiac 19, Coldwater 18.