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Part two: 1974 champ shares season journey

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The Bowie News is publishing a letter sent in from David Prater, who was the starting center, co-captain and named to the all-state tournament team on the 1974 Bowie boy’s basketball state title team. The son of Bettie and the late Paul Prater, he wanted to give his first-hand account of that season as a tribute to his Coach Gayno Shelton after the team was featured in the Looking Back series. The letter was published in two parts.
The rest of district was uneventful until the last game. The flu had come to town and half the team was either getting over it or just getting it. Coach decided to play us sick ones only two quarters. I played in the first and third quarters. Lee Ray Massey must not have been sick because he had 38 points and we scored 105 points. It was our only 100 point game.
We next had a “warm up” game at Midwestern against Petrolia. They had beaten us three times. The first time was early in the season while football was going on. The second was at their place, where the clock stopped working and Steve committed a phantom foul as time ran out and they made a free throw to win. The third was at a tournament at Midwestern.
This was my first shot at them. We were the better team. I had just recovered from the flu and this was the only game in my high school or college career that I played every second of the game. This was a close game from start to finish.
We were ahead most of the time, but could never pull away. Near the end I got a defensive rebound, but before I found an outlet, they just took the ball right out of my hands and scored.
In the final minute we were down by two points. I was fouled and missed both free throws. We lost the game by two points. I knew how to play when there was plenty of time on the clock or we were up by 20 points. I had to learn what to do with the game on the line in the closing seconds.
The bi-district game was against Coleman. It was the first time I had heard the rumbling in town. Coleman and Hooks were in the same district. Hooks had beaten Bowie the year before and now Coleman had beaten Hooks, so Coleman must be really good.
Looks like a trip to state was not going to happen. Luckily, the players didn’t see it that way. We beat Coleman by 33 points. Tommy Cannon was leading scorer with 20 points and I had 16 rebounds.
At the regional tournament our first game was against Ferris. I did not have a good game. My shot would not fall as I made 3-9. I did get 13 rebounds. Darwin McKinley had 23 and Lee Ray had 18. We won by 15.
We watched the first half of the game of our next opponent. New Boston with the leaper and Kaufman with the three 6-foot-3-inch farm boys, as my dad called them, on the back of their 2 – 3 zone.
To start the game the leaper moved across the middle of the lane, he jumped for a high pass, went back up and made a soft shot. This guy could jump. By half time though, he was no longer catching the ball in the middle of the lane. The 6-foot-3-inch farm boys were positioned so he was catching it almost at the free throw line and outside his comfortable shooting range.
I was asked who I would rather play against and I said Kaufman. I wasn’t sure I could slow down the leaper. If the farm boys stopped me, then that was okay because each of our other four starters could score 20 points in any given game.
Kaufman couldn’t stop all of us. I got my wish, but the town was rumbling again. If Kaufman could stop the leaper they could stop me and we would not go to state. Had the town forgotten about our other four starters? We were not one dimensional. I was just one of five.
Before each game, my dad would tell me to “get after it.” This was about all he was allowed to say because of my insecurities as a player, any helpful comments were always perceived as criticism by me. I knew I wasn’t very good, I didn’t need reminding. This time he told me, if we wanted to go to state, I had to have a great game. I was going to have to carry the team this game if we were going to win.
Before the game, coach went over a scouting report. It was the first we had ever had. He told me not to put the ball on the floor. I thought, I never do that so not a problem.
The game started, I won the tip and on the first play I got the ball on the block. I did two things I had not done all year: I faked the shot, took one dribble to the middle of the lane and jumped in for the layup. I made the shot, got fouled and made the free throw. The game was close the whole time. We finally pulled away at the end and won by 11 points. I had my first 20–20 game, 25 points and 22 rebounds. After the buzzer sounded we jumped around, high five’d and hugged each other. We were going to state.
Years later at one of the many award ceremonies for coach or one of us players, coach said that was the best playing of a big man in the playoffs he had ever seen. He said “Prater was not going to let the team lose. He made sure we won.” We were barely ahead when I fouled out. In the last two minutes, the team made six free throws and stopped Kaufman from scoring. That’s how you win close games.
We chartered a bus with the team from Petrolia for the trip to Austin. Talk about complete opposites in culture. Petrolia was loud, made rude comments to people in the other cars and played poker on the bus. Some Bowie players finally joined in on the cards, but no one would have dared to make comments to people passing by. I could never see me doing well in the Petrolia culture.
We settled into our hotel rooms. The team had the whole floor so we left our doors open to wander around and visit. A couple of players from another team came to our room and sat down for a visit. They said they were from Bastrop, another 2A team playing in the other bracket. After a visit we wished each other good luck and they left. These “Bastrop” players had big R’s on their letter jackets. Maybe the Refugio players, who were 29–0, weren’t that smart.
A couple of things going on at this time was streaking and Cheech & Chong had an album with a track call “Basketball Jones”. I didn’t see any streakers, but some of the parents did on the UT campus. At the state tournament during time outs or just on the bench, it wasn’t uncommon to hear Coach Jackson singing a little Basketball Jones. Keeping us loose and relaxed as best as we could be.
Refugio, the number one team in the state versus Bowie with five loses, four of them by a total of only seven points. They beat several teams going to the playoffs and some higher division teams. Their press defense was their offense. This worked great against any team that did not have a point guard named Bobby Brashear. One-on-one you could not steal the ball from Bobby. Two-on-one was not much better chance. Of course Tommy Cannon or Lee Ray Massey were pretty good ball handlers, too.
The game started and I think the first six times down on offense Lee Ray and I scored three baskets each. Unfortunately, I had picked up two fouls on the defensive end. I started the second quarter and had three baskets before my third foul. I took a whole 30 seconds in the second half to pick up fouls four and five. Not much help to the team.
Rick Belz stepped in and stepped up his game. His starting the first of the year while I was hurt really paid off now. Darwin had his routine 20 point game and we won by seven points. Funny how the only people not shocked was our team. We were never behind during the second half, something Refugio had not experienced. They did not know how to play with the game on the line at the end.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.

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Baseball Roundup

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Saint Jo vs Bellevue
The Saint Jo Panthers got out of their early season funk as they beat fellow 1A Bellevue twice last week on two different days.
The Panthers won the first high-scoring game 15-9 before shut out the Eagles 10-0 in the second game.
Saint Jo had a rough beginning to its season, with mostly ugly losses and only one win.
Bellevue came in with no wins, but it was not unexpected due to it being the Eagles first year as a program since the late 1990s.
Bellevue led the first game for most of it scoring five runs in the first inning and just holding off the Panthers 5-4 heading into the sixth inning.
Saint Jo then caught fire, scoring six runs in the sixth inning to take its first lead since the first inning. The Eagles kept it close and scored four runs to make it a one run game 10-9 heading into the final inning.
The game had to be postponed due to Bellevue’s new field not having any lights to play past a certain time.
When the game was picked up three days later, the Panthers added five more run to their lead. The Eagles could not answer and Saint Jo won the game 15-9.
Devein Stewart and Logan Hoover led the Panthers four RBIs each while Charlie Evans and R Forrester drove in two runs each.
Trent Gaston pitched 4.1 innings and allowed two runs and struck out seven batters to lead the team.
Saint Jo’s defense committed four errors.
For Bellevue, Brayden Moore led the team with three RBIs while Bryce Ramsey and Ryan Jones each drove in two runs.
Ramsey pitched five innings and allowed four runs while striking out nine batters to lead the team.
The second game picked up right after the end of the first game. Unfortunately for the Eagles, the second game went similarly to the end of first game.
Saint Jo scored three runs in the first inning, four in the second inning and three in the third inning.
The Panther defense shut out Bellevue and the game ended with Saint Jo winning 10-0 after four and half innings due to run rule.
Sam Martin led the Panthers with four RBIs while Evans drove in two runs. Stewart pitched three innings and allowed one hit and one walk while striking out six batters. Hoover pitched two innings and struck out four batters while allowing no hits and walking two batters. The team committed no fielding errors.
For Bellevue, River Trail got the only hit in the game for the team. The team drew three walks, but could not get on base.
Blake Reese led the team with two innings pitched and three earned runs on two hits and five walks while striking out two batters. The defense committed no fielding errors.

Nocona
The Nocona Indians lost their second game against Muenster on Friday on the road.
The Indians lost 10-0 after five innings due to run-rule as the Hornets picked up all of their runs in one horrible inning for Nocona.
The score was tied at 0-0 heading into the bottom of the third inning. The Indian defense had navigated one out singles the first two innings without letting it morph into anything threatening.
Unfortunately, the third inning saw Muenster get going from the first batter.
Five singles, two doubles, two walks and a hit batter later saw the Hornets score 10 runs.
Nocona’s bats had been able to get someone on base in most innings despite Walker Murphey getting the team’s only base hit, but could not get a run to score.
The Indian defense did bounce back to not allow any runs in the fourth or fifth inning, but with no runs coming through for Nocona, the game ended after five innings.
Muenster won 10-0.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.

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Softball Roundup

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Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians lost at home on Friday night against Muenster.
The Lady Hornets won 9-0, with most of the damage coming in the fourth inning against the Lady Indians.
Nocona gave up two runs in the first inning, but kept the game within reach after shutting out Muenster in the second and third innings.
Then came the fourth inning. Five fielding errors and two singles contributed to the Lady Hornets scoring six runs to go up 8-0.
The Lady Indians struggled to get their bats going all game though they did get some base runners that could have been worked home with some timely plays in other games.
Muenster added one more run in the sixth inning to make the final score 9-0.

Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers lost a shootout at Era on Friday night.
The Lady Hornets won 25-15 in a game that ended early after six innings due to run-rule.
Saint Jo was trailing the early part of the game down 9-1 after three innings.
The Lady Panthers then had a huge offensive inning, scoring nine runs in the fourth inning to go up 10-9.
Era bounced back in the same inning and scored three runs to retake the lead 12-10, but Saint Jo then scored four runs in the fifth inning and one in the sixth inning as it lead 15-12.
The Lady Hornets then embarked on an inning from hell for the Lady Panthers, more than doubling their score and not ending until Era was up by 10 runs to end the game early.
The Lady Hornets had scored 13 runs to win 25-15.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.

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Nocona’s Stone signs to play football

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Nocona senior Johnny Stone, son of Chelsi and Haydan, signed his letter of intent to play football at Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie on Monday. Stone played running back and linebacker for Nocona on varsity for three years, helping the Indians go from two wins his first season to winning 16 games the last two seasons that resulted in playoff berths and a district title this past season. Stone has also spent time playing baseball, golf, basketball and track during his four years at Nocona. “They have a great program there,” Stone said. “Their business and financing program, it is five years for a masters so I thought that was a really good choice. They have a nice indoor gym. They really focus on the relgious part of school.” Stone plans to focus on business and financing major with maybe a minior in religious beliefs.

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