The Bowie Lady Rabbits pulled off a remarkable comeback against Cisco on Friday night in the area playoff game at Mineral Wells.
The Lady Rabbits came back from 11 points down midway through the fourth quarter to win 50-45, upsetting the favored Lady Loboes who had led since the end of the first quarter.
The game got off to a slow start for both teams. Cisco came out in a full-court press defense that bothered Bowie before it could get anything going. The Lady Rabbits struggled to put the ball in the hoop, but did a good job of limiting the Lady Loboes with their zone trapping scheme. Cisco led 8-5 heading into the second quarter.
Bowie continued to struggle to score while the Lady Loboes started having success pushing the ball in transition off of rebounds despite relaxing on the press defense.
Cisco’s lead got into the double-digits and led 24-13 at halftime with the Lady Rabbits needing to find someone to get the offense going.
The third quarter was more even, but this meant Bowie did not make up much of the deficit. Abbi Gamblin provided a spark offensively as she nailed 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions. Still, the Lady Rabbits trailed 36-27 heading into the final quarter.
Camberley Gunter nailed a 3-pointer from the corner to cut the lead to 36-30 in the opening minute of the quarter. Bowie changed to press defense to change things up as well as prevent Cisco from holding the ball. The Lady Rabbits hoped with this good start and the change in defense things would turn around.
That did not happen right away. The Lady Loboes stretched their lead out to double-digits again in the next four minutes while Bowie’s offense continued to run cold. Cisco led 41-30 with 4:20 left to play when things started to change.
Jayci Logan scored while being fouled and made the free throw to complete the three-point play. Only a few seconds later Brysen Richey dribbled into a pull-up 3-pointer from the top of the arc and drilled it.
The Lady Rabbits now only trailed 41-36 with 3:45 left to play.
After time out, the Lady Loboes held the ball for a minute and scored a basket before Bowie got the ball back. Richey was fouled and sent to the free throw line and drilled both free throws to cut the lead to 43-38 with 2:12 left in the game.
On the inbounds afterwards, the team stole the ball and Taygon Jones scored on a quick layup. Another steal led to Hope Jones scoring a layup. Right after that the Lady Rabbits got another quick steal in the back court and Taygon was fouled under the basket, but not before scoring and giving Bowie a 44-43 lead with 1:31 left to play before her free throw.
After a time out, Taygon missed the free throw and the Lady Loboes drew a foul and were sent to the free throw line, making both to take back the lead 45-44 with 1:18 left to play.
The Lady Rabbis went inside to Hope on their next possession. After a variety of post moves and an extra defender coming late, Hope scored to give Bowie back the lead with just less than a minute to go.
The teams took turns throwing the ball the away out of bounds the next 10 seconds before the Lady Rabbits stole the ball away. After running some clock, Richey was sent to the free throw line with 27 seconds left for a one and one.
The shot hit the back rim, bounced high before rattling in, but not before the officials called the ball dead due to the ball being called out of the field of play.
What could have been a huge break for Cisco was thrown away as Hope jumped a pass at mid-court to steal another ball giving Bowie possession. Taygon was sent to the line with 16 seconds left and made both to up the Lady Rabbits lead to 48-45.
The Lady Loboes made their way to Bowie’s side of the court before calling timeout with 10 seconds left to try and set up the last shot. Another mistake from Cisco came when on the inbounds, the player caught the ball with a foot on the line, giving the ball back to the Lady Rabbits.
Taygon got fouled again and sank both free throws to ice the game. A final heave from the Lady Loboes that did not batter missed and Bowie completed the comeback win 50-46.

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