By BLAKE WOOD
bnewssports@sbcglobal.net

Another Montague County boys’ basketball season wrapped up, with four of the seven area teams reaching the postseason, three of them winning at least one game.
The big story before the season began was the arrival of three new coaches to the county: Tyson Mankin in Nocona, Brian Blank in Saint Jo and Danny Pruett in Gold-Burg.
Mankin was succeeding coaching legend J.D. Mayo in Nocona, though he didn’t put too much thought into that aspect.
“I knew coming in the kids were going to be well-coached,” he said. “But we had a different gameplan; we wanted to put our own footprint on the program.”
Mankin brought a more offensive style of play with him, as evidenced by a 43-41 overtime win over Henrietta in January being the fewest points the Indians scored all season.
The non-district portion was a rollercoaster ride, featuring a three game win streak and four game losing skid.
“We had our struggles early on,” said the coach. “The learning curve was steep.”
However things began to go well for Nocona in district 3A-9 play. After a close win and a loss, the Indians rattled off a seven game win streak, including a 51-50 win over county rival Bowie.
“The first half of district was the best they played all season,” said Mankin. “They played at a much faster pace.”
The Indians cooled off afterwards however, entering their playoff game against Whitesboro with a loss. Their season would end against the Bearcats after a rough 100-70 loss. Read more in the weekend edition of The Bowie News.

Bowie’s Chase Hall (11, maroon jersey) was a Conference 3A all-region selection along with Nocona’s Kameron Hill. Both Hall and Hill serve as the all-county team captains. (News photo by Eric Viccaro)