Even though things are supposed to be hard in the playoffs, the Nocona Lady Indians made it look easy as they took down Breckenridge on Monday in Mineral Wells in their opening bi-district game.
There was not much suspense after the opening minutes of the first quarter as the Lady Indians ran all over the Lady Bucks 74-36.
Those opening minutes saw Breckenridge establish what they were going to try and do. They wanted to drive the ball and into the paint and then pass the ball to an open shooter on the perimeter. Like most teams, they looked to double Nocona’s leading scorer Averee Kleinhans and deny her the ball on defense.
An early 5-2 lead from the Lady Bucks was all the good Breckenridge had before the Lady Indians got rolling.
Pushing the ball off of rebounds and turnovers, Nocona was able to create early scoring opportunities that built momentum. With the Lady Indians sinking a few three-pointers and finishing fast breaks, the scoring pace completely got the Lady Bucks out of their comfort zone and the turnovers just increased.
Nocona finished the first quarter on a 15-0 run as they led 17-5 heading into the second quarter. From there things never slowed down.
With Kleinhans scoring 13 points in the first quarter, Breckenridge tried to deny her the ball on out of bounds plays and pressing her with two defenders.
This did not seem to affect her at all as she was able to use her size to catch the ball over her defenders and dribble circles around them, creating a five-on-three scenario that was primed to get a good look.
With the offense in full swing and the score getting out of hand, the Lady Indians did not hold back as the second half saw them put up 24 points. Speared on by Kleinhans, who had 30 points at halftime, Nocona led 41-15.
The second half saw the Lady Indians continue to score at will. With the win in hand Coach Kyle Spitzer started to split Kleinhans and Trystin Fenoglio’s time on the court together so each could lead the offense as the press defense did not work on Fenoglio either.
Even with the margin getting bigger and bigger, the energy never fully went out of Nocona. Untill the very end, they were diving on the floor for loose balls and giving effort on defense.
In a game with little competitive merit it is easy for these things to lose importance to the players on either side, but both teams fought hard until the end. The Lady Indians won 74-36.

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