The Bowie Lady Rabbits playoff run defying the odds came to an end on Tuesday as they battled state-ranked Jim Ned and almost pulled off another upset in Cisco.
The Lady Rabbits lost 46-39 as they gave the number two ranked team in the state a run for their money. The Lady Indians only pulled ahead thanks to some clutch free throw shooting down the stretch.
Bowie came in after winning close games against Peaster and Cisco in the playoffs, both teams were picked to win in those matchups.
While both of those teams were good, with Cisco ranked in the top 25 teams in the state, neither was as acclaimed as Jim Ned. The Lady Indians came in with only three losses on the season, the last one coming in 2019.
Powered by its suffocating defense, the Jim Ned team only allowed two teams to score more than 40 points during its 11 game winning streak, the Lady Indians were expected to easily win.
The game started and Jim Ned seemed one step ahead of the Lady Rabbits’ zone defense. Passes whizzed by defenders rotating late and the Lady Indians made a couple of wide open shots, giving them a 12-6 lead late in the quarter.
Bowie rallied as it went inside to senior post player Hope Jones. Being single covered, she went to work as she scored a couple of baskets and got to the free throw line, scoring seven points in the quarter.
The Lady Rabbits tightened up their defense and cut the lead to 14-12 heading to the second quarter.
Jim Ned had a good start to the quarter, scoring off a sequence when it got multiple offensive rebounds as well as getting an open shot in the opening minutes.
Midway through Bowie trailed 18-13 and slowly started to grind away that little bit of a lead. The Lady Rabbits just outplayed the Lady Indians during this stretch, forcing turnovers, hitting some perimeter shots, finding driving lanes and making it to the free throw line.
Bowie eventually took the lead 19-18 with a little more than a minute to play, but Jim Ned made a 3-pointer in the final minute to tie the score 21-21 heading into halftime.
While the second quarter was slow for both teams, the third proved to be even more so. The Lady Indians took the lead early as they took advantage of second and third chances at baskets thanks to offensive rebounds.
The Lady Rabbits could not get anything going from outside so they continued to dump the ball into Jones. She scored twice and got to the free throw line as she scored five of the team’s seven points in the quarter, but it was enough to keep up with Jim Ned.
It looked like the score was going to be tied at 28-28 heading into the final quarter, but a Lady Indian player took it coast to coast and made a pull-up jump shot at the buzzer to put Jim Ned up 30-28 heading into the fourth.
Both teams exchanged baskets in the opening thirty seconds of the quarter, but the pace slowed down after that. Despite being up only one score, the Lady Indians immediately started to try and hold the ball to run time off the clock.
The game stayed one score for most of the quarter until time started to run down. A crucial play almost turned the game as Bowie guard Brysen Richey stole a pass at midcourt. Down 37-35 with 3:17, a layup would tie the score and force Jim Ned to try and play offense.
Unfortunately, the layup with a defender in hot pursuit was no good. The Lady Indians got possession and the parade of free throw attempts started for Jim Ned. Bowie answered as Jones got to the free throw line again a made both free throws to cut the lead to 39-37 with 1:50 left to play
Bowie switched to a press defense to try and put pressure on the Lady Indians and it had some success, but did not create the chaos it did in the previous game.
The Lady Rabbits also went cold on offense as Jim Ned continued to draw free throws and knock them down as the one score game slowly widened and got away from Bowie.
The Lady Indians went 9-10 from the free throw line in the final 2:36 of the game to close it out, winning 46-39.

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