The Nocona Lady Indians survived a second half assault from Merkel in the area round of the playoffs on Friday, holding on to win late.
The Lady Indians won by the narrowest of margins 50-49 to continue their season, sending the Lady Badgers packing for the second straight year.
Nocona started the game off well. The Lady Indians limited Merkel’s chances offensively while also looking for chances to score off of rebounds. Averee Kleinhans attacked the rim and got the free throw line, scoring five points. Sydni Messer knocked in a par of shots to also score five points. Nocona led 12-7.
The game picked up the pace in the second quarter for both teams, but the Lady Indians added to their lead. The team made three 3-pointers in the quarter and Kleinhans and Messer both shared in equal measures again, scoring six points each.
Nocona’s lead was in the double-digits 31-19 heading into halftime, but something from Merkel was lurking. Senior leading scorer Kaydi Pursley had carried the Lady Badgers offensively so far, scoring 15 of her team’s 19 points, including 10 in the second quarter. Little did the Lady Indians know she was just warming up.
Merkel changed the way it was playing defense to start the second half. Nocona went cold for all of the quarter, with only a pair of 3-pointers from Trystin Fenoglio and Kleinhans keeping the Lady Indians from posting scoreless quarter.
Pursley continued her scoring pace from the second quarter, scoring 11 points in the quarter as the Lady Badgers caught back up. Nocona’s lead was almost gone as it was a one-score game 37-35 heading to the final quarter.
The Lady Indians lost the score at one point as both teams went back and forth. Pursley was not cooling off as she would score 12 points in the quarter on her way to finishing with a game high 38 points.
Still Nocona would not fold. Fenoglio and Kleinhans both at different times came up with great finishing drives that were rewarded with free throws for traditional three-point plays to swing the momentum.
Down the stretch, the Lady Indians held a 50-49 lead with a little more than 30 seconds to go. Messer got her hand on a pass and almost completed the save, but it went out of bounds even with her diving to try and save it.
After inbounding the ball and working it to the left high post, the Lady Badgers bounce pass out to the perimeter was stolen by Kleinhans. She took the ball the other way and was fouled with eight seconds left.
She missed the free throw and Merkel raced the ball up the court while making sure it was in the hands of Pursley. Never breaking stride she put up a running shot from 3-point land was blocked and taken away by Fenoglio as the clock ran out, preserving Nocona’s win 50-49.

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