Despite the impending snow fall that arrived the day after, the heat and intensity from the packed gym on Friday night that was past capacity was home to a showdown between rival schools and communities from Bowie and Nocona.
In the end, the home team came out victorious as the Lady Indians won 52-44 to set up a three-way tie for first place atop the district standings five games in.
Coming into the game, the Lady Rabbits were the only undefeated team left in the district, with Nocona losing on the road to Childress, a team Bowie had beaten a week earlier.
In contrast, the Lady Indians came into district play as the favorites, losing only two games throughout all of non-district play while the Lady Rabbits were more up and down, adjusting to life without a proven go-to scorer they had been use to in years past.
The game started off with the type of slow pace that favored Bowie. They took their time looking for shots and grabbed offensive rebounds to extend their possessions while Nocona’s busy hands were called for a lot of non-shooting fouls. By the end of the quarter, the Lady Rabbits were already in the bonus while the Lady Indians had eight fouls called on them.
Still, Nocona took advantage of the few offensive possessions they had, pushing the ball and looking for quick shots, with point guard Trystin Fenoglio leading the way with eight points and two made three-pointers.
With Bowie missing about half of its free throws, the Lady Indians held a slim 12-10 lead heading into the second quarter.
Thirty seconds in, disaster seemed like it might strike Nocona. All-state player and the area’s leading scorer Averee Kleinhans, who has a history of getting into foul trouble in some games, picked up her second foul. With the way the game was getting called, it seemed inevitable she would pick up her third if she stayed in and be only two away from fouling out of the game.
Lady Indian Coach Kyle Spitzer took the risk, trusting Kleinhans. He was rewarded as she scored 12 of the teams 14 points in the quarter, despite facing double teams on the perimeter. She even knocked in some deep three-point shots off the dribble despite facing double-teams.
Bowie, who had a 20-17 lead midway through the second quarter, failed to score for the rest of the quarter as Nocona led 26-20 at halftime. Two three-pointers from Taygon Jones and Abbi Gamblin in the second quarter were huge for the Lady Rabbits confidence, with three-point shooting not being a strength for them.
The third quarter was more of the type of game Bowie thrives in as they were able to cool off Kleinhans from her hot second quarter while continuing to limit anyone else in getting good looks outside of free throw attempts.
The Lady Rabbits continued to find open shots on the perimeter as Jones and Brysen Richey hit timely three-pointers when the team needed it most while Hope Howard continued her streak of being unstoppable in the post as she scored four of her team high 12 points in the quarter.
Bowie took the lead with two minutes to go and looked like they were going to head into the fourth quarter with a 32-31 lead, but Fenoglio was able to push the ball up the floor and knocked down a pull-up three-pointer at the buzzer to give Nocona a 34-32 lead to mitigate the Lady Indians worst quarter.
The first two minutes of the fourth quarter was all Lady Indians as Fenoglio and Kleinhans drew fouls at an alarming rate. While the first quarter saw a lot of fouls called on Nocona, the second half and especially the fourth quarter saw a lot of fouls called on Bowie.
With the Lady Indians in the bonus, Kleinhans and Fenoglio were making enough free throws to give Nocona’s lead a little breathing room as they led 43-35 with six minutes to play.
The Lady Rabbits could never make up the difference. While every other moment throughout the game the Lady Indians had gotten a comfortable lead, Bowie had answered back with timely runs to take the lead.
With the Nocona in the bonus, the Lady Rabbits had a hard time keeping the Lady Indians off of the free throw line as the eight point deficit did not change.
With several starters fouling out and time running out, the answer Bowie had been able to give all game never came as the Lady Indians won 52-44.

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