DOWAGIAC — The Dowagiac girls basketball team kicked off a busy week with a 48-20 win over visiting Michigan Lutheran Monday night.

The Chieftains, who play three games this week, shutout the Titans 15-0 in the first quarter and went on to the easy victory. The win improved Dowagiac’s record to 10-5, while Michigan Lutheran falls to 6-10.

The Titans finally got on the scoreboard in the second quarter, but were down 20 points, 27-7, by halftime.

Dowagiac Coach Jason Turner substituted liberally in the second half to give his starters a rest for the remaining games this week, but also to give his reserves some quality court time.

The Chieftains led 41-12 heading into the fourth quarter.

“Tonight, it was good to get back on the court after the battle on Friday,” he said. “We played a good game tonight. We played good as a team and got some big minutes from the bench. This was important as we have three games this week. Marlie [Carpenter] had her career-high tonight, and played really nice offensively and we did a good job getting her the ball.”

Carpenter finished with a game-high 21 points to lead Dowagiac and all scorers. Dowagiac also got seven points from Maggie Weller and Brenna Mott. Audrey Johnson finished with six and Rebecca Guernsey five points.

Maddie Plocher had five points to lead the Titans.

The Chieftains host Constantine in another non-conference game Wednesday before returning to Lakeland Conference action at Berrien Springs Friday night.