By ERIC VICCARO
bnewssports@gmail.com

Bowie High School and Braemar College met again in the championship game of the 2015 Bowie Invitational.
This time around, Bowie matched Braemar’s physical play as the Jackrabbits recorded a 43-36 victory over the traveling troupe from Australia.
“We rose to the challenge,” Bowie head coach Doug Boxell said. “We decided to spread the floor, and control the tempo.”
Boxell said Bowie did a much better job boxing out Braemar in holding them to one shot per possession.
In turn, with Bowie playing at a slower pace, the Jackrabbits’ shot selection improved as well.
In the loss to Braemar on Thursday, Bowie made good on only 10-of-46 field goals (a paltry 22 percent) while the team was 14-of-34 (41 percent) in the championship.
“We competed to win,” added Boxell, who said the Jackrabbits have had just seven practices – counting Monday – with the players coming off football season.
All that added up to a tournament title for the Jackrabbits, who bumped up one spot to 17th in the latest Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Conference 3A poll. Bowie has won four of five games, and now stands at 5-3.
Bowie established a 16-12 lead at the end of one quarter, and the halftime cushion was sliced in half to 21-19 at intermission as Zac Smedley stole an errant Jackrabbit pass and converted it for a layup just as the buzzer sounded.

Bowie Taylor Pigg (32) dribbles past a Braemar College player during the first half of Saturday’s Bowie Invitational Championship game. The Jackrabbits matched Braemar’s physical play for a 43-36 victory. (News photo by Eric Viccaro)