The Nocona Lady Indians had to dig deep as they matched up with the only other undefeated team in district, Childress, in an overtime thriller.
The Lady Indians outlasted the Lady Tigers to win 58-54 to take control of first place in the district standings with one game left to play in the first round.
The two teams had history brewing from last year’s games. Childress won the first matchup in its gym, winning 57-55. Nocona returned the favor in its own gym on senior night as an Averee Kleinhans buzzer-beater gave the Lady Indians a 43-40 win on the way to the district title.
The Lady Tigers also have their own player that fills up the basket with points. Versatile junior post player Grace Foster shared the district’s most valuable player award with Kleinhans last season when both players were just sophomores.
With a full year to plan for Foster, Nocona Coach Kyle Spitzer’s game plan was to make her a non factor.
It was an electric atmosphere as it seemed the whole town of Nocona had packed into the gym. Every basket and big play resulted in big cheers that were infectious. Even with the two hour trip, plenty of Childress fans and students made the trip as the winner would most likely have firm control at the top of the district.
From the opening tip, Foster was stalked and hounded by a Lady Indian defender trying to deny her the ball, even if she was just throwing the ball inbounds after a basket.
For most of the game that player was Chloe Daughtry, but Sydni Messer also had her time shadowing Foster in the second quarter.
The other four defenders were playing a 2-2 zone, also known as a box-and-one defense. Childeress could not get the ball inside to Foster and instead seemed content with creating open 3-point looks.
On the other side, the Lady Cats tried to limit Nocona getting the ball to Kleinhans in a similar way. With her being one of the Lady Indians lead ball handlers, Kleinhans was still able to fight her way to get control to initiate offense.
Nocona was looking to push the tempo early and got an early lead. Childress capitalized on its open shots from deep that helped keep pace, making four 3-pointers in the first quarter. Kleinhans proved too much early as she scored 12 points and the Lady Indians led 19-14 heading into the second quarter.
The second quarter was more of the same. Kleinhans got to the basket and free throw line and Kylie Rose got out in transition to score five points.
The Lady Cats continued to capitalize on their open looks they were getting from deep, making four more 3-pointers in the second quarter.
One of those came from Foster as she shot a deep shot off a pick and roll. A lot of Childress’ first half scoring came from Addilyn Keys, who made four 3-pointers herself and scored 13 points.
Nocona still held a little bit of a lead at halftime 32-31.
Changes were made defensively for the Lady Indians in the second half. Foster was still being hounded wherever she went, but the rest of the team were playing more man defense, with an emphasis on doubling Foster if she even thought about touching the ball.
This limited the looks from 3-point range for the Lady Cats, but they found another thing that worked. They started running pick and rolls with Foster setting the pick. With her defender glued on her, the ball handlers had some success getting all the way to the rim.
On offense Nocona stalled a bit, scoring only seven points. This allowed Childress to take the lead 41-39 heading into the final quarter.
It was a back-and-forth end to the game. The Lady Indians got a huge push offensively from Kleinhans as she scored all 11 points for the team in the quarter. The final one came with the score tied in the final minute.
Even with two defenders running at her, she navigated her way into the lane and scored an uncontested layup with 11 seconds left to put Nocona up 50-48.The Lady Cats answered as freshman point guard Chloe Teichelman made a shot in the lane with two seconds left to tie the score at 50-50 and send the game to overtime.
The Lady Indians started off the extra period on the right note as Trystin Fenoglio converted an and-one finish. Childress answered right away as Foster scored her only other basket of the game as she posted up and scored before help could come to cut the lead to 53-52.
After the Lady Tigers tied the score a minute later with free throws, Kleinhans got the free throw line and made one to give Nocona a 54-53 lead with less than two minutes to go.
After getting the ball back, the Lady Indians ran some clock before Fenoglio was sent to the free throw line with 34 seconds left. She made one to push the lead to 55-53.
Childress had a look at a corner 3-pointer that would have given the team the lead. The shot missed, but a Lady Tiger player grabbed the offensive rebound and was sent to the free throw line with a chance to tie the game with four seconds left. She made one, but missed the other.
Kleinhans grabbed the rebound and was fouled with 2.6 seconds left. She made the first free throw to push the lead up to 56-54 and tried to miss the second one on purpose so time would run off, but instead it was a violation.
Childress tried to draw up a long throw play down the court, but it was deflected out of bounds by a Lady Indian player on their side of the court and no time had run off from the clock.
With the ball in now favorable position on Nocona’s side of the court and 2.6 seconds left, the Lady Cats would have a great look at a last shot. Fortunately, the Lady Indians defense came through as Karlee Brown stole the ball before being fouled with virtually no time left.
She still went to the free throw line and knocked in both free throws, but with the time on 00.1 seconds left, the game was wrapped up anyway. Nocona would win 58-54.
The Lady Indians start the second round at home at 6 p.m. on Jan. 28 against City View.

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