First-year Dowagiac girls’ basketball coach Emily McLoughlin has her team atop the Wolverine Conference after a convincing opening night 47-16 victory over Comstock on Friday night.

“This was a good start for us tonight as our aggressiveness on defense created offense,” said McLoughlin. “Our offensive sets were also good, which makes me happy.”

Senior guards Katie Lorenz and Kaisha Martin were stalwarts in the first quarter as they helped harass the young Colts into 11 turnovers and scored six and five points respectively. The host Chieftains were leading 13-1 after eight minutes with freshman Ashley Cross providing the only point for Comstock with 1:28 on the clock.

Dowagiac’s Breneesha Jones matched Lorenz’s pair of triples in the second stanza as Dowagiac took a 25-7 lead into the locker room with junior Caleigh Friedt sinking the first field goal for the visitors after 11 minutes of action.

The Colts kicked away another 10 possessions for 21 turnovers in the first half, but were relentless on missed shots with an 18-9 rebounding advantage.

“Dowagiac seemed to shoot real well and Kaisha (Martin) is very, very fast and it is hard to contain her,” commented Comstock coach Gretchen Mayo. “The first game jitters are out now, so I hope we shoot better the next time.”

Martin reached double figures in the third quarter alone with 11 points on mostly layups as she used her state sprinting champion speed to outrace the Colts down the court.

“I am just trying to help the team as we are getting adapted to a new coach and things are going good so far,” stated the soft-spoken Martin. “Our defense is really good, but we need to help out the post more on offense.”

Junior Colt center Melinda Kokales scored four of her six points tying (Cross) for the points lead for the visitors with sophomore Amanda Clapper leading the carom count with nine as they outrebounded Dowagiac by a 33-25 margin.

Comstock was missing starting senior guard Karley Rickstad along with a couple of her classmate backcourt mates.

“Our girls never gave up and proud how they hustled for rebounds,” mentioned Mayo afterward. “These girls will keep working hard and with a young team we are looking forward to them getting better.”

The only player to reach double figures in scoring was Martin with her 19 points and classmate Haley Pegan was the leading rebounder for the Chiefs with three in each half.

Dowagiac made half of its14 charity tosses with Comstock converting on only six of the 18 free throw attempts for the opener.

“We need to do better at rebounding on defense and always get better with free throws,” concluded McLoughlin. “We also need to utilize our speed throughout the season.”

COMSTOCK 16

Melinda Kokales 2 2-5 6; Ashley Cross 2 2-4 6; Caleigh Friedt 1 0-1 2; Jenna Munn 0 1-4 1; Chelsea Henry 0 1-2 1; Frannie Ruelas 0 0-2 0; Amanda Clapper 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 5 6-18 16

DOWAGIAC 47

Kaisha Martin 8 3-6 19; Breneesha Jones 2 0-0 6; Katie Lorenz 2 0-0 6; Carly Polomcak 1 3-4 5; Regina Kennedy 2 0-0 4; Kelsie Primley 2 0-2 4; Haley Pegan 1 1-2 3. TOTALS: 18 7-14 47

Comstock 1 7 9 16

Dowagiac 13 25 38 47

3-point baskets: Dowagiac 4 (Jones 2, Lorenz 2), Comstock none. Total fouls: Dowagiac 20, Comstock 12. Fouled out: None. Rebounding: Dowagiac 25 (Pegan 6), (Comstock 33 (Clapper 9).  Turnovers: Dowagiac 14, Comstock 28. Shooting: Dowagiac 18-42, 4-8 3-pointers; Comstock 5-42, 0-7 3-pointers. Varsity records: Dowagiac 1-0, 1-0 Wolverine; Comstock 0-1, 0-1 Wolverine