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DOWAGIAC — A dominating defense helped the Dowagiac girls basketball team tune up for its showdown with No. 7-ranked Brandywine on Tuesday.

The Chieftains held visiting Watervliet to eight or less points in three of the four quarters of their non-conference 51-29 victory Friday night.

Behind the play of senior Maggie Weller, who scored a game-high 21 points, and sophomore Marlie Carpenter, who added 12 points, Dowagiac took a 14-3 lead after one quarter and controlled the play for most of the contest.

The Panthers (3-2) made one run at Dowagiac (5-1) in the second quarter, cutting the lead to 16-11, but never got any closer as the Chieftains ended the first half on a 9-4 run to take a 25-15 lead into halftime.

Dowagiac would hold Watervliet to 14 second-half points, while scoring 26 to pull away to the easy victory.

Besides the combined 33 points from Weller and Carpenter, the Chieftains also got six points from Audrey Johnson.

Grace Chisek was the lone Panther to reach double figures as she scored 11 points.