The Bowie Jackrabbits started their playoff run with a bang on Tuesday as they took it to a Tolar team that was fired up to be playing them in the bi-district round.
The Jackrabbits exploded in the second half on their way to blowing out the Rattlers 71-39.
Early in the game, Tolar was up 10-7 as their team came in with a lot of energy and enthusiasm. Their post player Seth Carroll was bouncy and had a good first step getting to the rim for a layup early.
Guard Mason Behrens was good at scoring in isolation either driving or shooting off the dribble.
Despite Carroll matching up in size with Bowie’s Daniel Mosley, the Rattlers opted to guard him with a smaller defender and bring help when he caught the ball. This allowed the Jackrabbits to throw the ball up to Mosley, who was strong enough to finish through traffic or score before help came.
Bowie ended the first quarter on a 9-0 run as they started pushing the ball in transition that created easier scoring chances. The Jackrabbits were up 16-10 heading into the second quarter.
Bowie quickly built a 10 point lead in the second quarter, but Tolar did a good job of not allowing the lead to get much worse.
Behrens would always get cut off with a help defender on drives, but was able to score with some flip shots since he was close to the rim. He made a three-pointer at the buzzer to cut the Jackrabbits lead back to 10 as Bowie led 29-19 at halftime.
Things did not change much immediately in the third quarter as both teams struggled to score midway through. The Jackrabbits led 33-23 when they went on an 11-0 run in the next two minutes to extend their lead to 21 points as the thin Rattlers team started to show fatigue.
This was thanks to even greater success pushing the ball off of turnovers and rebounds thanks to point guard Justin Franklin pushing the tempo.
He was able to get by his initial defender and force extra defenders to try and cut him off, only to quickly pass the ball to an open player. When they chose not to bring help, Franklin usually finished strong at the rim or picked up a foul.
Any chance for the Rattlers to come back looked laughable as Bowie led 49-24 heading into the fourth quarter.
Instead of letting up and coasting to the end with the win in hand, the Jackrabbits kept the foot on the gas. The scoring kept coming from Bowie as no one could slow down Franklin in transition as the Jackrabbit offense was humming.
Tolar’s offense devolved to isolating Behrens for one-on-one where he made four three-pointers off the dribble in the quarter despite only making the sole desperate one before halftime in the game.
Outside of him, the Rattlers did not have the offense to make a difference as Bowie won big 71-39.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.