The Nocona girls basketball team won their first overtime game of the season on Saturday against a tough Alvord team.

The Lady Indians held on to win 74-68 in a physical, heated game.

Early on fouls were getting called often. Before the first quarter was over, there were 17 fouls called already forcing several players on both sides to sit. Nocona was struggling to score a little bit in the halfcourt early on. The Lady Bulldogs were getting to the free throw line more in the quarter and led 11-7 midway through. The Lady Indians defense started picking up stops and the full court outlet passes from Averee Kleinhans started to fly. Nocona ended the first quarter on an 11-5 run, taking the lead 18-16 heading into the second period.

Alvord initially tried to run a full-court trapping style defense that produced some turnovers early on, but not too consistently as it backed off at certain points with the fouls adding up for the Lady Bulldogs as well. The Lady Indians were dealt a blow when lead ball handler Kleinhans picked up her third foul a little less than midway through the second quarter. Alvord had come back to take the lead 24-20 at that point and seemed to have all the momentum.

Nocona showed its depth as freshman Skyler Smith stepped up to handle the ball. She did a great job getting to the free throw line as the rest of the Lady Indians did for the rest of the quarter.

The Lady Indians two post players Karlee Brown and Stephanie Gutierrez crashed the offensive boards relentlessly to create second and third chance opportunities. All of that combined to make sure Nocona stayed competitive as the Lady Bulldogs stayed tough to keep off the free throw line as well. Alvord’s Rachae Fowler led all scorers with 15 points in the first half, with seven coming from the free throw line. The teams combined for 29 fouls in the first half as the score was tied at 31-31 at halftime.

The Lady Indians came out in the third quarter and dominated. The defense played a lot better without fouling as the Lady Bulldogs did not attempt a free throw line the quarter. Defensive stops led to more transition opportunities for Nocona. Smith scored eight points in the quarter while Kleinhans scored six points as everything was rolling for the Lady Indians. Nocona took a 49-38 lead heading into the fourth quarter as it seemed to have control of the game with a double-digit lead.

Early in the fourth quarter the Lady Indians suffered a big blow. Kleinhans picked back-to-back fouls in the opening seconds of the quarter to foul out of the game.

This was the opening Alvord needed to try and get back into the game. Most of Nocona’s ball handling now had to go through Smith, a freshman who has split duties with Kleinhans at the beginning of this season playing her fifth varsity game. The Lady Bulldogs offense caught fire from outside during the quarter, making four 3-pointers in the fourth after making only one all game in the first three.

Slowly but surely Alvord caught back up, taking back the lead for the first time in the second half 56-55 with 1:25 left to play. Gutierrez got to the free throw line for Nocona and made both clutch free throws to give back the Lady Indians the lead 57-56 with 53 seconds left. The Lady Indians defense came up with a clutch stop and got the ball back with 35 seconds.

Unfortunately, Nocona turned the ball over out of the of bounds six seconds later to give the ball back to Alvord with the chance to take the lead. The Lady Indians defense again came up with a crucial stop and gained back possession of the ball. Raylee Sparkman was fouled and sent to the free throw line with seven seconds left. Sparkman also made both important free throws to put Nocona up 59-56.

The Lady Bulldogs moved the ball up before calling a time out with a little less than five seconds left. Inbounding the ball from the sidelines, Alvord ran a play to get a shooter open in the corner. She was inbounded the ball and immediately fired a 3-pointer that swished in to tie the game at 59-59 and send the game into overtime.

Smith had done a good job of getting where she wanted to go while also drawing contact and getting to the free throw line a lot since she had taken over as lead ball handler. It was Sydni Messer’s 3-point shot though that initially gave Nocona a 64-61 lead in the first minute of the overtime period that allowed the Lady Indians to grab control.

Nocona’s lead grew to 69-61 with 1:30 left to play when starting post player Brown fouled out for the Lady Indians. Alvord cut the lead to 69-65 with 1:03 left to play, but Smith and Gutierrez made enough free throws down the stretch and Nocona’s defense only allowed a late 3-pointer at the end to close out the game. The Lady Indians won 74-68.

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