DOWAGIAC — Midway through the second quarter of Thursday night’s Wolverine Conference South Division contest with visiting Edwardsburg, the Dowagiac boys basketball team continued to struggle.

Suddenly, the Chieftains came to life and took advantage of several Edwardsburg miscues that led to easy baskets.

Dowagiac shifted into high gear offensively for the first time since its opening loss to Benton Harbor and as a result defeated the Eddies 51-36 to snap a four-game losing streak.

“We have been flat for a couple of weeks here,” said Dowagiac coach Danum Hunt. “I told the guys if we are going to do it we need to do it now. We cannot wait. We got a couple of defensive stops and that just kind of sparked our offense. That is the type of Dowagiac basketball I am used to seeing.”

The Chieftains (2-5, 1-1 Wolverine South) led 19-10 after one quarter against Edwardsburg (2-4, 1-1 Wolverine South) and 31-18 at the intermission.

Dowagiac became a more patient offensive team in the second half and used the clock and a lack of offense by the Eddies to its advantage.

The Chieftains took a 41-34 lead into the final eight minutes of play and held on for the victory.

Dashawn Brooks scored a game-high 17 points to lead the Chieftains, who also got 13 points from Trae Brookins and 10 points from D.J, Lanier.

Luke Hudak was the lone Edwardsburg player to reach double figures as he finished with 10 points.

Dowagiac dropped a 68-53 decision to highly touted Grand Blanc at the Paul Wilhite Classic in Benton Harbor Saturday night.

The Chieftains trailed 58-33 after three quarters, but outscored Grand Blanc 20-10 in the final quarter to make the score more respectable.

Shaquan Stanback scored game-high 22 points to lead the Chieftains, who also got 15 points from Brooks and eight points from both Lanier and Brookins.

Girls basketball

Dowagiac got off to a fast start against the Eddies, but could not keep the momentum as the defending Wolverine Conference champs rallied to win 71-34.

The Chieftains led 7-2 before the fans had settled into their seats.

The Eddies (6-0, 2-0 Wolverine South) outscored Dowagiac (2-4, 0-2 South) 9-4 the rest of the opening quarter to take a 12-11 lead.

The Eddies never looked back as they outscored Dowagiac 59-23 over the final three quarters for the easy victory.

“For the first 16 minutes of the game, we played 14 of them pretty solid,” said Dowagiac coach Brent Nate. “We showed what we are capable of. But it goes back to having full practices. We have to practice at a high level in order to play our games at a high level.”

Kaitlyn Zarycki scored a game-high 23 points to lead the Eddies, who also got 13 points from Claire Bartz.

Allie Conner led Dowagiac with 11 points. Kellyn Daly finished with eight.