By By DON EDEN / Dowagiac Daily News
The Wolverine Conference match-up between Dowagiac and Allegan was the tale of two halves as the Chieftains forced the visitors into 13 first half turnovers and led 31-27 at intermission before the height took over for a 65-54 Tiger victory.
Junior Caleb Byers (6-foot-5) of Allegan hit a trey 15 seconds after senior Matt El (6-foot-7) controlled the opening tip with ease and after two minutes the scoreboard showed an 8-0 shutout before Dowagiac's speed and athleticism hurried the visitors into mistakes.
Dowagiac sophomore Tre-mail Butcher played his first game of the year after injuring his ankle and scored seven points as the Chiefs outscored Allegan 19-6 to take a 19-14 advantage after the first stanza with the visitors turning the ball over nine times.
The 3-point shot and free throws kept Allegan (5-1, 3-1 Wolverine) close in the second quarter as both made field goals were behind the arc and they took advantage of being in the bonus as senior guards Kevin Thrash and Curtis Drozd were successful on 7-8 charity tosses.
Junior Brandon Douglas scored five of his eight points in the second quarter to help keep Dowagiac (1-5, 1-4 Wolverine) ahead 31-27 going into the locker room. Senior Michael Filley scored six points with two of his field goals coming on well executed inbound plays under the basket.
"Dowagiac outworked us in the first half and it is hard to win with 13 turnovers in a half," said Allegan coach Travis Spaman, who took little credit for his halftime speech. "The kids talked at halftime among themselves so all the credit goes to them as I stayed away for four minutes."
Byers again scored 15 seconds into the third quarter and the score was tied at 31 apiece with 6:36 showing on the clock after a made shot by Drozd and four minutes later Byers scored to make the score 36-31 as the Chiefs were still scoreless.
"Allegan used the same offense and the same defense, but we just didn't have the same intensity and passion in the second half," explained Dowagiac coach Greg Blomgren. "They did a good job getting the ball inside and put us on our heels and never regained the momentum we had in the first half. Also, we couldn't get set up in our defense because we couldn't score in the second half."
Butcher scored the first points with 2:22 remaining in the third quarter and capitalized on another inbound executed play for the only points for the hosts as the Tigers built a 46-35 advantage with senior Travis Pennock hitting a torpedo with 33 seconds to seal the momentum.
"We settled down against the Dowagiac pressure in the second half and used our size advantage on the inside-outside game," noted Spaman. "Dowagiac may come together at the end of the year and upset some teams, but I am excited about this team because all the hype from last year caused these guys to wait their turn and now they want to prove themselves."
Byers was the only non-senior that started for Allegan and El made a dunk with four minutes left to avenge one he missed in the opening stanza which gave the visitors a 55-39 lead and reserves played the rest of the game.
"The first half was good, the second half was bad, but we need to put two good halves together since we are in every game," said Blomgren. "Allegan is a solid ballclub and their record shows it, but we wanted somebody other than (Curtis) Drozd and (Caleb) Byers to beat us and (Travis) Pennock hit some big shots for them."
Sophomore Chris Craft led the junior varsity with 19 points as Dowagiac won 66-44 with Jason Turner scoring 14 points. The Chieftains also got 10 points apiece by Corey Rodgers and Alex Miller.
The freshmen team was also victorious for the Chiefs with a 51-34 defeat of the Tigers as Craig Zebell and Eric Charles scored 16 and 12 points respectively.
ALLEGAN 65
Kevin Thrash 0 4-5 4; Curtis Drozd 4 7-10 17; Travis Pennock 5 1-2 16; Joseph DeBoer 1 0-0 2; Matt El 3 2-6 8; Cole Hoyer 0 3-4 3; Anton Jackson 1 0-0 2; Caleb Byers 5 2-4 13. TOTALS: 17 19-31 65
DOWAGIAC 54
Jalen Nickens 1 2-4 4; Romero Reed 1 1-2 4; Shaun Bruens 2 0-2 5; Michael Filley 3 0-0 6; Drew Cooper 2 0-1 5; Pierre Reed 2 0-0 5; Damone Huff 1 0-1 2; Tanner Melvin 1 0-0 3; Tremial Butcher 5 1-1 11; Brandon Douglas 3 1-2 9. TOTALS: 21 5-13 54
Allegan 14 27 46 65
Dowagiac 19 31 35 54
3-point goals: Dowagiac 7 (R. Reed, Bruens, Cooper, P. Reed, Melvin, Douglas 2), Allegan 8 (Drozd 2, Pennock 5, Byers). Fouls (fouled out): Dowagiac 23, Allegan 14 (Thrash). Varsity records: Allegan 5-1, 3-1 Wolverine; Dowagiac 1-5, 1-4 Wolverine