After only a few days of practice with roughly one third of their team fresh from their football playoff exit, the Nocona boy’s basketball team opened their season Nov. 20 at home against Archer City.
The Indians showed some rough patches as they ended up losing 48-40 to the Wildcats as they showed some vulnerabilities inside as they dealt with foul trouble throughout.
With new systems to learn and not enough time to implement them for every player, the first half was especially rough.
The first quarter was low scoring, but Nocona’s defense kept the score close despite them turning the ball over a lot and not making shots.
They trailed Archer City 7-6 heading to the second quarter.
The Wildcats started to take advantage of some things that were working inside as Jacob Wilhelm got some of the Indian’s post players in foul trouble while scoring inside. Nocona’s offense continued to struggle in the second quarter and trailed 20-13 at halftime.
The second half saw both teams pick up the scoring a bit as some shots for the Indians started to go in.
Near the end of the third quarter Nocona trailed 29-21, but they were able to close the gap to 29-26 heading into the fourth quarter.
By this time Archer City was taking advantage of Wilhem’s matchups in the post as he fouled out a few of the Indians post players with his physical nature as he scored 11 of his team’s 19 points in the fourth quarter.
While the Indians were able to cut the lead down to 38-37 with 2:20 to go, free throws down the stretch from the Wildcats was the difference in the final margin. Archer City won 48-40.

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