The effort turned in by the Dowagiac girls basketball team against Edwardsburg was much improved Friday night.

Unfortunately for the winless Chieftains, the results were the same.

Edwardsburg took control of the game at the end of the third quarter and went on to post a 45-31 Wolverine Conference West Division victory.

Leading 29-21 with five seconds left in the third quarter, Dowagiac was whistled for a violation while trying to inbound the basketball.

On the ensuing play, the Eddies’ Katelynn Rodgers got the ball and connected on a 3-pointer as the horn sounded to extend Edwardsburg’s advantage to 32-21.

Dowagiac never recovered.

While it didn’t quit playing hard, the Chieftains were never able to mount any type of run at the Eddies down the stretch.

“We played and competed and that’s all I asked them to do,” Dowagiac coach Flyd Foston said. “We scored 31 points, the other night we scored four. Where we are at right now, we have to build on a game like this. We can’t come back out Tuesday night and play like we did last Tuesday at Michigan Lutheran.”

The Eddies led from start to finish, but until the sequence at the end of the third quarter, they never were comfortably ahead of the Chieftains.

Edwardsburg led 8-5 after one quarter and 15-12 at halftime.

“The girls just played better defense,” Edwardsburg coach Nicole Cartwright said of her team’s second half performance. “We really pressured the ball and got a lot of steals, which led to easy baskets. We just played better basketball.

Alexis Blake led the Eddies with 11 points, while Rogers finished with 10 and Olivia Hack 9.

Rodgers paced the Chieftains with a game-high 14 points. Rayven Brown and Jessica Herthoge finished with six and five points respectively.

 

EDWARDSBURG 45

Olivia Hack 9, Rachael Boyles 2, Gabby Golba 0, Anna Roberts 4, Haleigh Hite 2, Katelynn Rogers 10, Maddi Holmes 7, Alexis Blake 11. TOTALS: 18 7-14 45

DOWAGIAC 31

Crieonna Rodgers 14, Kristen Turner 2, Jessica Herthoge 5, Kylee Williams 0, Rayven Brown 6, Riley Daly 0, Jenesis Green 0, Ciera Smith 4. TOTALS: 15 1-3 31

 

Edwardsburg 5 15 32 45

Dowagiac 8 12 21 31

3-point goals: Edwardsburg 2 (Rogers 2), Dowagiac 0. Total fouls (fouled out): Edwardsburg 8 (none), Dowagiac 12 (none)