SPORTS
Jackrabbits lose at home to Holliday
Bowie’s district home opener had the feeling of a horror movie you could not take your eyes off of Tuesday night as the Jackrabbits played Holliday.
No matter how ugly it got, fans kept waiting for it to get better and it never did as the Eagles dominated 55-30.
Missing all-state player Daniel Mosley inside for the second game, Bowie welcomed back lead ball handler and best perimeter scorer Justin Franklin after he returned two weeks with an ankle.
Even without those two, the Jackrabbits had outplayed a try hard City View team that only came on strong in the final two minutes to make the final score as close as it was 64-56.
Surely Bowie, who played one of the toughest pre-district schedules against several state ranked teams in higher classifications, some without Mosley, would be able to overcome an inexperienced Holliday team even without its best player.
The answer was evident from the opening tip. The Eagles attacked the basket hard early and were rewarded as they were in the bonus by the end of the quarter. Despite the Jackrabbits length inside, Holliday’s strength and physical play dominated them inside.
From scoring inside to attacking Bowie’s major weakness, preventing offensive rebounds, the Eagles were the ones who were dominating in the paint and not the other way around.
This forced Bowie to switch to a zone defense to put a stop to the scores in the post, but Holliday had enough shooting to hurt the Jackrabbits enough, though it did slow down the scoring pace they started with.
It was the offensive end where Bowie struggled. The constant passing to players coming off screens just never seemed to open any good looks and the Jackrabbits eventually started forcing floaters in the lane and contested three-point shots that had a prayer to go in.
Bowie trailed 15-7 after the first quarter, with the hope they could figure out something that could work against the physical Eagles.
While the Jackrabbits had calmed Holliday’s offense, Bowie’s offense continued to struggle. It did not help that senior leader Taylor Pigg got into foul trouble and was forced to sit for most of the quarter. Besides some nice mid-range shots from Braden Armstrong coming off of screens, every point was like pulling teeth for the Jackrabbits.
Holliday led 25-13 at halftime.
Bowie has been a good third quarter team for most of the season as Coach Jonathon Horton has faith in his team enough to make drastic adjustments on both offense and defense to find what will work.
While no big change came, the third quarter was the most competitive quarter of the game. Boo Oakley came off the bench and despite his slight frame did his best to hold his own against the thicker post players of the Eagles. Unfortunately, he picked up a lot of fouls playing this way and ultimately fouled out early in the fourth quarter.
Despite playing more competitively, this meant that Holliday still held a double digit lead 37-22 heading into the fourth quarter and the Jackrabbits needed to dig deep and find something that worked if they wanted to have a chance to comeback.
Fans holding out hope for that, especially following a game where the Lady Rabbits did come back to win, were left disappointed. The Eagles finished the game with their best effort of the game while Bowie helplessly tried to make anything happen. The final buzzer could not come fast enough as it seemed half the crowd had already left. Holliday won 55-30.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Nocona Indians wrapped up their first playoff berth since 2005 with a dominant win against Chico on Thursday at home.
The Indians won 10-0 in four and half innings due to run-rule to earn the district’s final playoff spot and break a nearly two decade drought.
Nocona was in a similar situation last year after beating Chico in the first game before losing twice more to the Dragons, once in the regular season finale and then in the play-in series.
The Indians won the first game earlier in the week 9-4, but knew they could play better. On Thursday they then proved it.
In the bottom of the first inning, Nocona got the scoring going as Wesley Murphey hit an RBI double. Two batters later, Landon Fatheree drove in two runs with a double.
Konnor Harrington followed with a groundout that scored another run as the Indians led 4-0.
In the second inning, Nocona kept up the pressure. Brody Langford drove in a run with a single. Later with the bases loaded, Caden Belcher was hit by a pitch that scored a run. A later passed ball allowed one more run to score as the Indians extended their lead to 7-0.
Nocona got one more run in the third inning. With the bases loaded, Wesley Murphey grounded into a fielder’s choice out that scored one run to make it 8-0.
The Indians got the final two runs they needed in the fourth inning. Walker Murphey and RJ Walker hit back-to-back RBI singles to put Nocona up 10-0.
Chico needed to score at least one run to prevent the game from ending early due to run-rule. Instead Walker Murphey completed the shutout performance by retiring the next three batters to end the game and the Dragon’s season.
The Indians won 10-0 and earned the district’s final playoff spot.
Wesley Murphey and Fatheree drove in two runs each to lead the team. Walker Murphey led the team with three hits. The team finished with 11 hits and drew six walks.
Walker Murphey also allowed zero runs and one hit while striking out five batters and walking none. The defense behind him committed only one fielding error.
Coach Zach Denson was beyond proud of this team for breaking the playoff drought.
“The amount of growth that they have shown throughout the year has been the most incredible I’ve seen in 13 years of coaching,” Denson said. “We went on a little skid in the middle of the year and that could have derailed our young team, but it actually brought us closer together as a unit.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Bowie Jackrabbits were able to clinch the final playoff spot on Thursday with a senior night home win against Henrietta.
The Jackrabbits won 6-1 in a game where all of the offensive action happened in the first three innings for both teams.
Bowie came into the game needing to win. Failing to do so would mean setting up a series with the Bearcats for the final playoff spot. If the Jackrabbits just took care of business against a team they had already beaten once pretty easily then they could avoid that whole situation.
Henrietta knew it was playing for the future of its season and struck first. A one out double followed by a single two batters later put the Bearcats up 1-0 against Bowie’s top pitcher Edmond De Leon on the mound.
The offense responded in the same inning with a two-out rally. Troy Kesey hit a single and Hayden Rodriguez drew a walk. De Leon then hit a double to drive one run in.
Cooper Hammer was then hit a by a pitch to load the bases up. Rayder Mann then drew a walk that scored one run and the Jackrabbits led 2-1 before the next batter popped up for out three.
Bowie added to that lead in the second inning. Boston Farris led off with a triple. Tucker Jones then hit a groundball to second base that resulted in an error that allowed Farris to score and make it 3-1 for the Jackrabbits.
Bowie then extended the lead in the third inning. Hammer hit a one-out single. Mann and Cy Egenbacher followed with hits that resulted in fielding errors for the Bearcats. The Jackrabbits scored one run on the second error.
Farris then hit a single that drove in another run. After a strikeout, a wild pitch then allowed another runner to score as Bowie was up 6-1. Another strikeout ended the scoring for the Jackrabbits.
The next three and half innings saw neither team score runs, though both had several chances with two runners getting on at times.
Henrietta’s best chance came in the fifth inning with two singles, but De Leon and Bowie’s defense shut that down. De Leon retired the final seven batters he faced as the Jackrabbits won 6-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Last week all of the area schools competed in their district’s tennis tournament and several schools had athletes qualify for the regional tournament.
In the end, 10 athletes finished second or better at district to move on for a chance to qualify for state.
Unfortunately, no players from Bowie were able to break through and qualify.
Many faced early seeding opponents from tennis power Vernon that ended their tournament.
The highest finish for a Bowie player was Lily Hodges who placed fourth in girls singles.
From Nocona, one girl was able to break through as Kaygan Stone finished second in girls singles to qualify for regionals.
Stone has had a tough year, dealing with shoulder problems that shortened both her volleyball and basketball seasons, but she bounced back this spring to qualify for regionals in tennis.
Her teammate Melissa Segura was not so lucky, as she finished third in girls singles and just missed the cut, having to settle for an alternate spot
At the 1A tournament, several schools had multiple athletes in one division qualify.
From Saint Jo, last year’s state qualifying girl’s doubles team of Kyler Dunn and Taylor Patrick won the division.
They beat out the second place finisher and their teammates, the girl’s doubles team of Maxey Johnson and Bailey Nobile, who also qualified for regionals.
From Gold-Burg, Jimena Garcia and Alyson Rojas placed first and second in girls singles to move on to the regional tournament.
Other schools only had one team or individual.
From Forestburg, the mixed doubles team of Jesse Wadsworth and Alli Cisneros finished second as they qualified for regionals.
From Prairie Valley, Case Carpenter finished second in the boys singles division.
To read the full story and see pictures of all of the qualifiers, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
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