SPORTS
Indianapolis 500 champ visits Cowboys
Freshly crowned Indianapolis 500 champion Will Power may be more familiar with Australian Rules Football or Australian Rugby, but he is well aware of “America’s Team” – the Dallas Cowboys.
Power, the first Australian to win the Indy 500 in its 102-year history, enjoyed a private tour of The Star and then had an opportunity to visit with a number of Dallas Cowboys players, coaches and even a few legends.
And when the 2014 Verizon IndyCar Series champion with Team Penske needed any help identifying any of them, he leaned on his wife, Liz, and brother-in-law, Billy Cannon. Having grown up in Plano, Texas, the Cannon family members are all avid Dallas Cowboys fans and Liz even won a contest to be a junior Dallas Cowboys cheerleader on Thanksgiving Day as a kid.
For Liz and Billy, it may have felt like winning the Indianapolis 500 all over again.
“I’ve been to like four Super Bowls and didn’t really know the players or the teams,” said Power, who was a special guest of his sponsor Verizon at those games. “My brother-in-law is just an absolute football nut. Dallas Cowboys fan. So is my wife. So it’s pretty cool to bring them along to do this.”
The group enjoyed a special tour of the facilities, watched a portion of practice and then Power visited with Cowboys players as they came off the field.
He signed nearly three dozen commemorative milk bottles for the players while a few others such as running back Ezekiel Elliott, offensive tackle Tyron Smith and head coach Jason Garrett also received a signed Justin cowboy hat that is traditionally given to the winner of next week’s DXC Technology 600 at Texas Motor Speedway, where Power is the defending champ.
Power also got the opportunity to meet a few Cowboys legends that were on hand, including running backs Calvin Hill and Daryl “Moose” Johnston.
To read the whole story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley Bulldogs had a good final non-district warm-up on Friday at home against Ector.
The Eagles beat the Bulldogs 69-63 in a game where Prairie Valley was trying to play catch up all the way through.
The Bulldogs were coming off a tough tournament at Electra the previous week to try and knock the holiday rust off. Prairie Valley was familiar with Ector, having played the team to start its season back in early November and was hoping to compete better than it did in that first game.
The Eagles came out firing, splashing five 3-pointers, including several deep ones, to go out to a 21-8 lead in the first quarter. Even with the Bulldogs changing out of their preferred zone defense, the 3-pointers continued a bit and opened things up inside the arc.
Thankfully, Prairie Valley’s offense came alive in the second quarter, scoring 18 points and cutting the lead down to 38-26 at halftime.
The third quarter was more of the same, though a different player for Ector started to get hot from beyond the arc. Even as the Bulldogs were able to keep up their offensive production from the second quarter, they could not break through and cut the game to single-digits, trailing 54-42 heading into the final period.
The fourth quarter saw Prairie Valley break through to cut it the lead to single-digits, but just not close enough. Every time the Bulldogs were on the cusp of making it a one or two basket game, the Eagles would make a shot to keep that distance.
In the end, the final score was the closest Prairie Valley got as Ector won 69-63.
Nocona
The Nocona Indians bounced back with a competitive district win at Petrolia on Friday.
The Indians won 60-53 against the Pirates in a game where the middle quarters took drastic swings in momentum.
Nocona was coming off its first district loss against Windthorst as the team sat a 1-1 district record.
Petrolia came into the game at 0-1, but had a bit more time to prepare for the game.
The first quarter was competitive, but the Indians were able to get to the free throw line at will and led 16-11.
Then Nocona’s pressure defense turned up its intensity in the second quarter.
“Our pressure seemed to disrupt them and we were able to get out in transition after forcing turnovers,” Coach Brody Wilson said.
Nocona scored 25 points and led 41-25 at halftime.
Unfortunately, that intensity did not keep up at the start of the third quarter for Nocona.
The Indians took their foot off the gas a little bit which allowed Petrolia’s offense to get back into the game and make up some of the deficit.
The Pirates outscored Nocona 15-7 and trailed only 48-40 heading into the final period.
Thankfully, the Indians bounced back and competed a bit better in the fourth quarter. Nocona was able to keep offensive pace to keep Petrolia at a bit of a distance instead of making it a one score game.
The Indians held on to win 60-53.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly Bowie News.
For more pictures from the Prairie Valley game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6871971&T=1
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