The Bowie Jackrabbits lost a tough game at Holliday on Friday after week from their last game.
The Jackrabbits offense fell flat in the second half as the Eagles coasted to a 56-39 with a parade of free throws at the end.
Bowie started the game well against the big and physical front line of Holliday. Cade Thompson had a great start to the game, making two 3-pointers and scoring nine of the team’s 13 points in the first quarter.
The Jackrabbits did a lot of switching defenses from possession to possession, pressing after some made baskets and going into a two-three zone or just straight up man defense.
All of it was to try and keep the Eagles post players from getting the ball cleanly and scoring around the basket.
It was a team effort, but Bowie did a good job of making every shot a tough contest and Holliday’s players struggled to finish.
Bowie did a good job of finding lanes and driving to the rim, finishing among tough contests and even earning a few free throws. Brody Armstrong came off the bench to score seven points in the first half for the Jackrabbits.
The Eagles got a lift in the first half from Nathan Williams off the bench. He made four 3-pointers and finished with 13 points, half of his teams points during that time. Thanks to him, Holliday led 26-24 heading into halftime.
The second half did not start well for Bowie. The Eagles immediately scored baskets on their first three possessions, even finishing inside and doing what they wanted with little opposition. Up 32-24 barley a minute into the second half, the back-and-forth nature of the first half was broken open.
The Jackrabbits would need to answer with a run themselves but turnovers, forced and unforced, prevented them from getting into any sort of a flow. Creating good looks at the basket seemed to be harder and outside shots were not going in.
Thompson scored on two baskets and scored five points, but Bowie only scored eight in the quarter as a team.
While the defense did eventually come back to make things more difficult for Holliday as the quarter went along, The Jackrabbits did not completely shut the Eagles down for the rest of the quarter.
Holliday scored enough to stretch its lead to nearly double-digits 41-32 heading into the fourth quarter.
A big run or a flurry of consecutive baskets never came for Bowie as the team’s offense continued to struggle. Even if the Jackrabbits defense would have somehow held the Eagles scoreless for the whole quarter, the Jackrabbits seven points would have fallen short of coming back.
Unfortunately, Holliday did continue to score mostly thanks to the 17 free throw attempts in the final quarter since Bowie was not just going to sit there and let them run the clock out. The increased defensive intensity did not lead to many turnovers or easy baskets in transition for the Jackrabbits either.
The Eagles did not shoot a high percentage from the free throw line, but made enough down the stretch to make the final score 56-39.

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