The final home game of the 2015-16 boys basketball season turned out to be a bit of a celebration for Dowagiac Saturday.

The Chieftains, who wrapped up the Wolverine Conference South Division title earlier in the week, avenged its lone division loss with a 65-60 win over Vicksburg.

In the process, Dowagiac senior Brandon Winchester-Jones became only the fourth Chieftain to surpass 1,000 points for his career.

Winchester-Jones, who finished with 17 points, joins Dontel Highsmith (1,969), Edgar Wilson (1,371) and Jamie White (1,206).

The Chieftains needed every one of those 17 points and more to avenge their Jan. 15 55-47 loss to the Bulldogs. In that loss, Vicksburg connected on 11 3-pointers.

It was obvious early in the game that Dowagiac was not going to let that happen again.

The Chieftains were aggressive on the perimeter and limited the Bulldogs’ attempts beyond the arc.

As a result, Vicksburg had just one 3-pointer at halftime.

Both teams had big scoring runs in the first half.

Dowagiac started the game on a 22-9 run, while the Bulldogs used a 23-5 run that not only erased the Chieftains’ early advantage, gave Vicksburg a 32-27 lead in the opening moments of the second half.

The two teams would go back and for the remainder of the third quarter and Dowagiac and Vicksburg would end up deadlocked at 43-43 heading to the fourth.

The Chieftains would score the first eight points of the final quarter to take the lead for good, but the Bulldogs would not go away.

Trenton Lomason hit a pair of 3-pointers to keep it close and Deondre Lovell’s triple with just under 10 seconds left cut the lead to 63-60.

A pair of free throws with 1.5 seconds left by Leroy Lewis sealed the win for the Chieftains, who finished with a 7-1 mark in the South Division and improved to 16-3 overall.

Besides Winchester-Jones, Dowagiac also got 17 points from Harry Reed, including five 3-pointer. Reed hit eight 3-pointers in the Chieftains 81-62 win over Paw Paw Friday night.

Keoante Blackamore, who like Winchester-Jones is wearing a protective make due to a broken nose, finished with 10 points and grabbed a game-high 18 rebounds.

Adrien Bucha-Moore came off the bench and added 14 points for Dowagiac.

Blake Rankin led the Bulldogs with a game-high 20 points. Lovell and Lomason finished with 12 and 10 points respectively.

 

DOWAGIAC 65, VICKSBURG 60

At Dowagiac

VICKSBURG 60

Adam Grabowski 4 1-1 10, Brenden Lovell 2 1-2 6, Deondre Lovell 5 0-1 12, Blake Rankin 6 6-7 20, Trenton Lomason 4 1-1 10, Trace Puckett 1 0-0 2, Caleb Kropp 0 0-0 0, Adam Henderson 0 0-0 0, Bryce O’Neill 0 0-0 0. TOTALS: 22 9-12 60.

DOWAGIAC 65

Jamin Hunt 1 0-0 3, DeYonte Sullivan 1 0-0 2, Keoante Blackamore 5 0-0 10, Harry Reed 5 2-2 17, Brandon Winchester-Jones 8 0-0 17, Adrien Bucha-Moore 6 2-2 14, Leroy Lewis 0 2-2 2, Mack Charles 0 0-0 0, Marcus Winchester-Jones 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 26 6-6 65.

 

Vicksburg       6          26       43       60

Dowagiac        14       27       43       65

3-point baskets: Vicksburg 7 (Rankin 2, D. Lovell 2, B. Lovell 1, Lomason 1, Grabowski 1), Dowagiac 7 (Reed 5, B. Winchester-Jones 1, Hunt 1). Total fouls (fouled out): Vicksburg 8 (none), Dowagiac 10 (none). Varsity records: Vicksburg 10-8, 3-5 Wolverine South; Dowagiac 16-3, 7-1 Wolverine South. J.V. score: Dowagiac 62, Vicksburg 58.