DOWAGIAC — First-year Dowagiac girls basketball coach Jason Turner had a big smile on his face as his team snapped as 12-game losing streak and picked up its first victory Tuesday night.

Turner was pleased that his team, despite not having several players available, was able to knock off visiting Bridgman 39-18.

Through its first 12 games, Dowagiac struggled to put the ball in the basket, handle defensive pressure, rebound and hit their free throws.

The Chieftains were solid in all those phases for most of the non-league contest. In fact, within the opening two minutes of the game, Dowagiac had scored a layup, hit a 3-pointer and connected on a pair of free throws as it raced out to a 7-0 advantage on Bridgman, which has not figured out how to beat the Chieftains in any of their previous meetings.

“That was fun,” Turner said. “The first thing we wrote down on the board tonight was ‘fast start and 32 minutes.’ That is one thing I keep preaching to the girls. That is one thing we have not done is play a full 32 minutes.”

Other than a brief stretch in the third quarter, the Chieftains played the way Turner would like to see them finish out the rest of the season.

“We had a little lull there in the third quarter, but other than that, it was the most full and complete game we have played all year,” he said.

With several girls missing due to Miss Dowagiac pageant practice, Turner brought up JV players Caleigh Wimberly and Calley Ruff. Both contributed to the victory, as did Sierra Carpenter, who has played several games with the varsity before Tuesday night.

That trio combined to score 19 of Dowagiac’s 39 points.

Turner said that in the opening minutes of the game, the team ran the offensive sets he wanted them to and got great looks at the basket. He believes his team is just now starting to put the pieces together.

“We have a lot of positives heading into the last part of our season,” he said. “We are starting to understand our offense. We are not standing around and actually running our plays. I told the girls in the locker room after the game, ‘that is one win. Now we have to keep it going.’”

That will be a tough task as the Chieftains head to Edwardsburg to take on the defending Wolverine Conference South Division champion Eddies, who moved into first place last Friday night with a win over Three Rivers, which Dowagiac will face on Feb. 21.

Another of the positives for the Chieftains Tuesday night was a balanced scoring attack, which came from both outside shooting and taking the ball to the basket.

Ruff led Dowagiac with a game-high eight points, while Carpenter finished with seven points, and Allie Carpenter added five points.