The Bowie Jackrabbits won at home against Henrietta on Tuesday thanks to a good second half.
The Jackrabbits won by double-digits 64-48 after a tight first half where they had to overcome some things.
The Bearcats came in with size and length and wanted to score posting up inside. Early on the foul troubles started to pile up for some of Bowie’s front court players.
The Jackrabbits did their best to weather the storm playing small against some of the big and skilled Henrietta players. By the end of the first quarter the Bearcats were already in the bonus while Bowie had drawn one foul.
The Jackrabbits got a lift from their shooting, making two timely 3-pointers and finishing at the rim over the big bodies.
Despite the foul troubles, Bowie came out of the first quarter on top 12-9.
The second quarter was similar. Both teams tried to play up-tempo to counter the full-court defenses employed by both teams at times.
In the half court, Henrietta decided to play man-to-man instead of the usual two-three zone defense the Jackrabbits were expecting, but they used this to their advantage. Bowie ball handlers were routinely able to get by their defender and into the lane before kicking it back outside for either an open perimeter shot or a more clear lane to drive.
All of the Jackrabbits scoring came from bench players led by Brody Armstrong, who knocked in a couple of 3-pointers and scored seven points during the quarter.
Henrietta slowly caught up to Bowie’s fast start to the quarter, cutting an 18-11 lead two minutes into the quarter to a 25-22 lead at halftime.
The pace picked up for both teams in the third quarter, which favored the Jackrabbits. The driving and kicking continued to flourish against the Bearcats defense. The team made three 3-pointers. Riley Blackburn came in and scored eight points around the rim after dump off passes by teammates.
Bowie almost doubled its first half total, scoring 21 points. Henrietta was not too far behind though. Long perimeter player Baron Brown woke up after a scoreless first half to score nine points in the third quarter.
It was not enough to keep up with the Jackrabbits, but Bowie’s lead 46-37 was far from safe heading into the final period of the game.
Any thought of the Bearcats coming back to make it a close game went away in the opening minutes of the fourth quarter. Bowie upped its lead to 53-39 and its offense did not look like it was going to be slowed down.
The teams played fairly even for the rest of the quarter. Henrietta had to start fouling and sending Jackrabbits to the free throw line to save time, but Bowie players made seven of 10 during the quarter to make the Bearcats pay.
By the end of the game, the bench was cleared for the Jackrabbits as they won with relative ease 64-48.

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