DOWAGIAC — There are things in life that are more important than winning and losing a basketball game.

The Dowagiac girls showed an example of that Friday night as they took the time to create a “get well” poster and signed a card to give to an opponent who sustained a serious injury and will miss several weeks of the season.

Three Rivers’ Hadley Miller, an all-state point guard for the Wildcats, has more than once single-handely scored more points than the entire Chieftain roster during her career, but then suffered a head injury while doing some training.

Miller will have to miss several games down the stretch of her senior season as she recovers, but the good news is that Miller will recover, and she was even in attendance Friday night when her teammates defeated Dowagiac 61-18 in a Wolverine Conference South Division game.

First-year Dowagiac coach Jason Turner and his team thought it would be a good gesture of sportsmanship to create the poster and sign the card to give to Miller before the game.

Prior to pre-game introductions, Dowagiac athletic director Brent Nate also wished Miller well from the entire Dowagiac school district and community.

“Like Brent said, she has been a dominant player in southwest Michigan the past few years,” Turner said. “When anyone gets injured like that, you think, ‘what if that was one of my girls?’ So, we thought, why not recognize her and hope she has a speedy recovery, because she has much more to do in her life, not only in basketball.”

The Wildcats (10-1, 4-0 Wolverine South) were obviously missing Miller as they seemed a bit out of sorts in the opening quarter.

Had Dowagiac been able to knock down a few shots, the Chieftains easily could have had a lead after the first eight minutes, instead of trailing Three Rivers 16-6.

The Wildcats started to pull together, as well as get hot from the floor with shooting, led by senior Karli Heivilin, who will play softball at the University of Alabama next year.

Three Rivers expanded their advantage to 45-8 by halftime and cruised home with the victory.

Heivilin finished with a game-high 28 points, while Alvia Knapp added 14.

Turner was pleased with his team’s effort, especially early on.

“I am so proud of how they played that first quarter,” he said. “We broke their press better tonight than we have the past three years. We went middle, and we went opposite. We had open shot after open shot. They did not go down.”

Allie Conner led Dowagiac with six points, while Hayden First added four.

Turner hopes his team builds some confidence from Friday night’s performance.

“Moving forward, we know we can break someone’s press,” he said. “We do not need to be afraid anymore.”

Turner and the Chieftains will get a chance to test that theory Tuesday night as Dowagiac travels to Paw Paw for a Wolverine Conference non-divisional game. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.