Still looking for its first win of the season, the Dowagiac girls basketball team took on visiting Wolverine Conference foe Vicksburg Friday night.

Unfortunately for the Chieftains, who did all they could in a 59-25 loss to the Bulldogs, dropped to 0-9 on the season.

Dowagiac started three freshman (Tania Wilson, Taylor Pye, and Amiyah Smith) and two juniors (Taylor Hulett and Micaela Ruff) for Friday night’s game, which featured a full team for the first time in over two weeks.

The team three girls who are competing for the title of Miss Dowagiac.

The Chieftains got out to a good start with Hulett taking the opening tip off in for an easy layup and holding a lead the first 5:20 of the game.

In that span Vicksburg did everything it could to get a good look at the basket, but the Dowagiac defense halted any attempt, causing a sooner than expected timeout.

Once the Bulldogs took the lead they would never trail again.

Full court pressure and Dowagiac mistakes saw Vicksburg take a 10-7 lead by the end of the first quarter.

But Dowagiac still had plenty of fight in them, holding the Bulldogs scoreless over a near eight-minute span until 2:30 left in the half.

A quick five-points later from Vicksburg and Dowagiac coach Floyd Foston called a timeout to rally his troops.

Instead Vicksburg used the timeout as a boost and poured on 16 more points, closing the half on a 21-0 run to take a 31-10 advantage at the half.

Putting the Vicksburg run behind them, Dowagiac went back to work in the third quarter putting what would end up being its best quarter point total.

Pye highlighted the end of the third quarter with a running buzzer beater.

Dowagiac trailed 45-19 heading into the final eight minutes of play.

However, the deficit was too much for the Chieftains to overcome.

Smith led Dowagiac and all scorers with 14 points. She also grabbed eight rebounds.

Alicia Cagney led Vicksburg’s balanced attack with 13 points. Kennedy Nabozny added 12 and Grace Welch both scored 10 points, and Layna Steele finished with 10 points.

 

VICKSBURG 59, DOWAGIAC 25

At Dowagiac

VICKSBURG 59

O. Holmes 3, C. DeBault 0, F. Morris 4, L. Steele 10, K. Nobozny 12, A. Cagney 13, M. Harris 4, G. Welch 12. TOTALS: 23 6-19 59

DOWAGIAC 25

Tania Wilson 2, Taylor Hulett 5, Nijah Russell 2, Brittany Strauss 0, Alyssa Allen 0, Micaela Ruff 0, Taylor Pye 2, Amiyah Smith 14. TOTALS: 10 5-14 25

 

Vicksburg       10       31       45       59

Dowagiac        7          10       19       25

3-point baskets: Vicksburg 7 (Steele 2, Nobozny 4, Cagney), Dowagiac 0. Total fouls (fouled out): Vicksburg 15 (none), Dowagiac 14 (Smith). Varsity records: Vicksburg 5-3, 2-1 Wolverine South; Dowagiac 0-9, 0-3 Wolverine South