By By SCOTT NOVAK / Dowagiac Daily News
It seems like the Dowagiac varsity basketball team has been chasing Gull Lake since it defeated the Blue Devils back in December.
On Friday night, the Chieftains caught and passed Gull Lake in the Wolverine Conference standings.
The Blue Devils came into the game with a 12-2 league record. Dowagiac was 10-2, and thus, trailed Gull Lake in the league standings.
Following Friday night's 53-51 victory over the visiting Blue Devils, the Chieftains stand alone in first place.
It's now Gull Lake's turn to chase the Chieftains, who will try and hold on to first place through a three-game week.
Dowagiac will host Allegan, which upset Gull Lake earlier this month on Tuesday, and Comstock on Wednesday, before traveling to Otsego on Friday night for its final road contest.
The Chieftains nearly let a 12-point lead in the final quarter slip away against the Blue Devils.
The Chieftains grabbed a 51-39 lead with 3:14 to play on a lay-up by Amos Clark.
Gull Lake quickly got the lead back to 10 points, 51-41, on a basket by Matt Kollig.
Dowagiac took the air out of the ball in an attempt to create some fouls by Gull Lake, which only had three fouls on the board in the second half.
The move worked too, as the Blue Devils committed four consecutive fouls in the span of 25 seconds, which put Dowagiac into the bonus.
Dowagiac missed the front end of a one-and-one on the first of only two trips to the foul line in the closing minutes of the contest.
Gull Lake cut the lead to 51-43 with 1:05 to play on a basket by Corey Allen.
Dowagiac turned the ball over on its next possession and Matt Gregory hit a 3-pointer with 58 seconds remaining to make it a 51-46 contest.
The Chieftains were able to break their scoring drought with 53 seconds remaining as Oscar Wilson scored on a lay-up to provide what turned out to be the game-winner for Dowagiac.
With 36 ticks left on the clock, Allen had a chance to cut the lead down to five points, but only made one out of two free throws.
Dowagiac could have iced the game with 29 seconds left, but missed again on the free throw line.
Gull Lake quickly got the ball up the floor and Allen scored on a lay-up with 23 seconds remaining to make it a four-point game.
Dowagiac broke the Blue Devils' press and could have dribbled the remaining time off the clock, but instead hoisted up a 3-point attempt with 14 seconds left.
Gull Lake rebounded the ill-advised shot, hustled up the floor and cut the lead to two points, 53-51, on a jumper by Kollig.
Dowagiac didn't have to inbound the ball as the final two seconds clicked off the clock.
"We didn't put ourselves in a position where I thought the outcome was in doubt," Dowagiac coach Greg Blomgren said. "It was our decisions toward the end and our free-throw shooting. We weren't happy with the way we finished the game, but the outcome was definitely what we were looking for."
Dowagiac never trailed in the game and with the exception of a 4-4 tie with 3:14 to play in the opening quarter, led the entire contest.
The Chieftains held a 13-9 lead after one period of play and a 28-23 advantage at halftime.
Dowagiac increased its lead to 10 points heading into the final quarter by outscoring the Blue Devils 13-12 in the third period.
The Chieftains' lead was just a little too much for Gull Lake to overcome at the end.
"They're too good of a team to let get ahead of us," Gull Lake coach Gary Sprague said. "I'm pretty pleased with how we finished. We made a good run at them and did the things you need to do, but didn't quite get back."
Dowagiac finished the game shooting 46 percent from the field, which included five 3-pointers. The Chieftains were just 2-of-4 from the free throw line and were outrebounded, 28-24.
Dowagiac did commit one fewer turnover than the Blue Devils (14-13).
Gull Lake finished the night hitting on 40 percent of its field goal attempts. The Blue Devils were just 2-of-11 from 3-point range, however.
Dowagiac's Chris Primley led all scorers with 18 points despite sitting out much of the second quarter in foul trouble.
Gull Lake's plan coming into the contest was to keep Primley out of the offense and off the floor.
"One of our goals was to put Primley on the bench," Sprague said. "We wanted to get him in foul trouble because they make it easy to post him up. But we didn't do that in the second half. When we got it in there he couldn't defend us, and the same thing with Clark. When we got past him he had to let us go, but we didn't do that often enough."
Clark, who was in foul trouble much of the second half, finished with 12 points, four assists, three steals and two rebounds. Primley grabbed nine rebounds. Wilson finished with 11 points for the Chieftains, who improve to 12-3 on the year.
Rob Frost scored 12 points to lead the Blue Devils, who also got 11 points from Gregory.
"We've put ourselves in a position where we basically control our own destiny and I think the kids understand that," Blomgren said. "That was the emphasis of tonight's game."
Gull Lake must now regroup and prepare to finish with a tough closing schedule, which includes Allegan and rival Comstock.
GULL LAKE 51
Matt Gregory 5 0-1 11, Corey Allen 4 1-2 9, Andrew Theisen 1 0-0 2, Matt Kollig 3 2-2 8, Rob Frost 4 3-6 12, Mitch Maiers 0 0-0 0, Hunter Klotz 0 0-0 0, Gordy Hyde 1 0-0 2, John Deyo 0 0-0 0, Jason Polmanteer 3 1-1 7. Totals: 21 7-12 51
DOWAGIAC 53
Andrew Cuthbert 3 0-0 7, Jamie Simpson 2 0-0 5, Oscar Wilson 4 0-1 11, Amos Clark 5 2-2 12, Chris Primley 9 0-1 18, Chuck Mersereau 0 0-0 0. Totals: 23 2-4 53
Gull Lake 9 23 35 51
Dowagiac 13 28 41 53
3-point goals: Gregory (GL), Frost (GL), Wilson (D) 3, Cuthbert (D), Simpson (D). Total fouls: Gull Lake 11, Dowagiac 13. Fouled out: None. Records: Gull Lake 12-5, 12-3 Wolverine; Dowagiac 12-3, 11-2 Wolverine