SPORTS
Lady Indians beat Bowie in five-set thriller
The Nocona Lady Indians had to battle Bowie on the Lady Rabbits senior night to stay near the top of the district standings.
It went five sets and the Lady Indians came out on top, but Bowie went another level than the first matchup almost a month ago.
A nice thing before the action started was senior night. While the Lady Rabbits honored their seniors, Jayci Logan, Lexi Kirkham and Katy Higgins, there also was time made to honor Nocona senior Jessica Dingler. She missed the Lady Indians last home game due to illness, missing her senior night.
Before the hardcore competition started, it was a nice reminder these communities can come together and look out for the other. Even in smallest gestures can mean a lot.
Nocona’s authoritative straight sets win in the first match was on everyone’s mind as the first set played out. The Lady Indians took control early and never looked back while the Lady Rabbits never got anything good going.
Nocona’s 10-5 lead grew to 21-9 with no hope of a raging comeback from Bowie. The Lady Indians won the set 25-10 to take the lead.
With such a one-sided start, would this be another straight sets win from Nocona or would the Lady Rabbits show some fight.
Bowie let it be known early in the second set that the first set was going to be an anomaly. The Lady Rabbits jumped out to an early 7-3 lead, but the Lady Indians came back to cut the lead to 8-7.
From there the middle of the set was all Bowie, going on a 9-1 run to extend the lead almost to double-digits 17-8. Nocona fought back and cut the lead to 19-16.
Looking like the Lady Indians might come back and steal the set after controlling it, the Lady Rabbits finished strong, winning the set 25-21.
With the score tied, the third set was a back-and-forth affair. An early 12-8 lead from Nocona was erased as both teams battled to a tie 20-20. Bowie got the advantage going up 23-20, but the Lady Indians came back to tie the score at 25-25. From there, Nocona won the next two points to win the set 27-25 and take back the lead.
The fourth set was similar to the third. The teams were locked at 10-10 and 15-15 as neither team could get much momentum to grab a lead.
As the set wound down, it was the Lady Rabbits who took control, going on a streak at just the right moment to win 25-22 and force a fifth and final set.
After two competitive sets that went both ways previously, the fifth set was expected to be similar. Instead, The Lady Indians got hot to start out the set, winning the first eight straight points.
Playing to 15 points instead of 25, any lead is multiplied in the fifth set since there are less points to play for in the set. Bowie shook off that start to play the rest of the set competitively, but could not make up that eight point lead. Nocona won 15-7 to win the match 3-2.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley Bulldogs had a good final non-district warm-up on Friday at home against Ector.
The Eagles beat the Bulldogs 69-63 in a game where Prairie Valley was trying to play catch up all the way through.
The Bulldogs were coming off a tough tournament at Electra the previous week to try and knock the holiday rust off. Prairie Valley was familiar with Ector, having played the team to start its season back in early November and was hoping to compete better than it did in that first game.
The Eagles came out firing, splashing five 3-pointers, including several deep ones, to go out to a 21-8 lead in the first quarter. Even with the Bulldogs changing out of their preferred zone defense, the 3-pointers continued a bit and opened things up inside the arc.
Thankfully, Prairie Valley’s offense came alive in the second quarter, scoring 18 points and cutting the lead down to 38-26 at halftime.
The third quarter was more of the same, though a different player for Ector started to get hot from beyond the arc. Even as the Bulldogs were able to keep up their offensive production from the second quarter, they could not break through and cut the game to single-digits, trailing 54-42 heading into the final period.
The fourth quarter saw Prairie Valley break through to cut it the lead to single-digits, but just not close enough. Every time the Bulldogs were on the cusp of making it a one or two basket game, the Eagles would make a shot to keep that distance.
In the end, the final score was the closest Prairie Valley got as Ector won 69-63.
Nocona
The Nocona Indians bounced back with a competitive district win at Petrolia on Friday.
The Indians won 60-53 against the Pirates in a game where the middle quarters took drastic swings in momentum.
Nocona was coming off its first district loss against Windthorst as the team sat a 1-1 district record.
Petrolia came into the game at 0-1, but had a bit more time to prepare for the game.
The first quarter was competitive, but the Indians were able to get to the free throw line at will and led 16-11.
Then Nocona’s pressure defense turned up its intensity in the second quarter.
“Our pressure seemed to disrupt them and we were able to get out in transition after forcing turnovers,” Coach Brody Wilson said.
Nocona scored 25 points and led 41-25 at halftime.
Unfortunately, that intensity did not keep up at the start of the third quarter for Nocona.
The Indians took their foot off the gas a little bit which allowed Petrolia’s offense to get back into the game and make up some of the deficit.
The Pirates outscored Nocona 15-7 and trailed only 48-40 heading into the final period.
Thankfully, the Indians bounced back and competed a bit better in the fourth quarter. Nocona was able to keep offensive pace to keep Petrolia at a bit of a distance instead of making it a one score game.
The Indians held on to win 60-53.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly Bowie News.
For more pictures from the Prairie Valley game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6871971&T=1
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