DOWAGIAC — Clinging to a one-point lead early in the fourth quarter, the Dowagiac boys basketball team needed someone to step up if it was going to win its fifth consecutive game.

Sophomore D.J. Lanier accepted the challenge, and hit back-to-back 3-pointers to give the Chieftains a 54-47 lead with 5:19 to play.

He scored 10 of Dowagiac’s final 12 points in a 62-51 Wolverine Conference non-divisional victory over visiting Paw Paw Tuesday night.

The Chieftains are now 8-3 on the year, and have beaten every league team is has faced so far this season. Dowagiac still has games against Allegan (Feb. 6), Plainwell (Feb. 20) and Paw Paw (Feb. 23).

The Chieftains also have South Division contests left: at Sturgis Friday night, against Edwardsburg (Feb. 2), at Vicksburg (Feb. 9) and at Three Rivers (Feb. 16).

Dowagiac coach Danum Hunt said that he challenged his sophomore at the start of the fourth quarter.

“Going out of the last huddle, I told him to be aggressive,” Hunt said. “He went out and knocked down the first one and he was confident. He finished us out. The young kid carried us tonight. He is capable of scoring points and he has been concentrating on the other aspects of his game like ball handling and passing. He is getting better at the defensive end.”

Lanier said the first 3-pointer he hit was the key.

“He said we needed to step up, dig down and grab out bullets,” he said. “I did not see too much movement from my teammates, I decided it was time to get a couple of buckets. After that, I knew I was on, so I started to shoot a bit more.”

The victory also puts Dowagiac in charge of its own destiny for winning the Wolverine Conference championship.

“That was a pretty big win for us,” he said. “That kind of puts us in control in the conference.”

Dowagiac focused on stopping Paw Paw standout Luke Toliver, who scored a game-high 24 points. The Chieftains ran multiple players at him defensively, and at times he showed his frustration by forcing up shots.

Hunt said that the goal was to keep him under 30.

“J.J. (Smith) stepped up and guarded him well,” he said. “D.J. guarded well, and Jamin really guarded well individually. Collectively, we came up, rotated and those guys did a tremendous job. I told them that would be the key to winning the game tonight.”

Dowagiac led 17-10 after eight minutes, and 35-27 at halftime.

Paw Paw (6-5) continued to chip away at the Chieftains’ advantage and trailed just 46-40 heading to the final quarter.

Dowagiac had a trio of players in double figures with Lanier leading the way. Caleb Murphy was again a force inside and finished with 14 points, while Smith added 11 points.

Toliver was the lone Paw Paw player to reach double digits. Andrew Vorce and Hayden Beck both finished the night with seven points.

The Chieftains head back into South Division action with a key game at Sturgis Friday.

Dowagiac defeated the Trojans 60-52 Dec. 15.

The Chieftains will return home Feb. 2 when they host Cass County rival Edwardsburg at 7:15 p.m.