By By SCOTT NOVAK / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Visiting Niles used a 32-19 second half scoring advantage to open its season with a 48-36 non-conference victory over Dowagiac Tuesday night.
The Lady Vikings led at every break, but really broke the game open in the second half.
Niles (1-0) outscored Dowagiac 15-10 in the third quarter and then 17-9 in the final eight minutes.
Veteran Niles coach Jim Arnold said that his team dominated the inside. Second-year Dowagiac coach Greg Blomgren agreed.
"I thought we got off to a good start," Arnold said. "We tried to get the ball inside because they didn't have much size. We noticed that coming in. I thought our big kids, Courtney (Teske) and Baysia (Cox) did a good job going strong to the basket. They weren't able to stop us, so we thought we would just keep on going inside until they stopped us. Fortunately for us, they didn't stop us too often."
"I think that's as big a team as we are going to see all year," Blomgren said. "That's as physical a team that we are going to play all year and they exposed our weaknesses. Boxing those girls out was a priority. It was a point of emphasis."
Niles took advantage of the Chieftains' lack of height in the opening minutes of the contest.
The Lady Vikings grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds off of missed free throws to open up a quick 6-0 lead.
Dowagiac stopped the streak at six points when Katy Stuppy connected on one out of two free throws with 5:58 to play in the opening quarter.
Stuppy canned a 3-pointer 41 seconds later to cut the lead to 6-4.
But Niles reeled off five straight points to go up 11-4 before Stuppy hit the second of her three 3-pointers with 3:36 to play to make it an 11-7 contest.
The Lady Vikings took a 12-9 lead into the second quarter, which they extended to 17-11.
Dowagiac (0-1) came roaring right back.
Freshman Torie Lowe connected on a 3-pointer with 3:26 to play in the opening half to cut the Niles' lead to 17-14. Following a Stuppy free throw, Holly Lowe canned two charity stripe tosses with 2:48 to play to tie the score at 17.
Niles would score the final four points of the first half to take a 21-17 lead into the locker room at the intermission.
The Lady Vikings slowly began to pull away in the third quarter and led by nine points, 36-27, by quarter's end.
Niles opened up a quick eight-point lead to start the third quarter and led by 12 points with 1:21 to play when Cox scored inside.
Dowagiac made a small run at the end of the period to keep Niles within striking distance.
The Chieftains were unable to make much headway the remainder of the contest and trailed by double digits pretty much all of the fourth quarter.
Kristy Cooper cut the Lady Vikings' lead to 38-31 with 6:40 to play in the contest, while Holly Lowe made it 42-34 with 2:40 remaining.
Dowagiac would get no closer however.
"We need to get better," Blomgren said. "We never took advantage of our quickness. We didn't get up and down the floor the way I thought we would. I think we got tired trying to rebound and stop their inside game. Give Niles credit. I thought they had a great game plan and understood exactly what they had to do against us."
Cox and Teske, both of whom scored 16 points and combined for 25 rebounds, led Niles. The Lady Vikings also got seven points and two steals from Lindsay Craig.
Stuppy led Dowagiac with 13 points. Torie Lowe finished with 12 points, while Cooper had six points.
"I thought our defense did a very good job to start the second half," Arnold said. "We made a couple of adjustments to make sure that Stuppy and Lowe weren't getting very many good looks at the basket. I thought overall we played very well defensively. If someone would have told me we would hold Dowagiac to 36 points with what they had coming back and the threes they nailed last year, I would have said no way. But our kids just rose to the occasion on the defensive end."
NILES 48
Mandie Pingel 1 2-3 4, Lindsay Craig 2 3-4 7, Abby Mitchell 0 0-0 0, Leigh Tyler 0 0-0 0, Kaitlyn Touhey 2 1-2 5, Kaleigh Hill 0 0-1 0, Rachel Shinsky 0 0-0 0, Courtney Teske 6 4-7 16, Baysia Cox 5 6-9 16. Totals: 16 16-26 48
DOWAGIAC 36
Beth Williams 0 0-0 0, Holly Lowe 1 2-2 5, Torie Lowe 5 0-0 12, Kristy Cooper 3 0-0 6, Sada Nealey 0 0-0 0, Katy Stuppy 3 4-6 13, Katie Roach 0 0-2 0, Sara Ausra 0 0-0 0. Totals: 12 6-10 36
Niles 12 21 36 48
Dowagiac 9 17 27 36
Three-point baskets: H. Lowe (D), T. Lowe (D), Stuppy (D). Total fouls: Niles 13, Dowagiac 19. Fouled out: None. Technical fouls: None. Records: Niles 1-0, Dowagiac 0-1