The Nocona basketball teams won at Henrietta on Friday to keep the good times rolling for both teams.
The Lady Indians stayed undefeated as they easily won 65-18 while the Indians controlled an intense game to win 49-38.
The Nocona girls started the game a little sloppy on defense. The Lady Cats scored more than half their points in the first quarter. Still, the Lady Indians run-n-gun offense proved too much as they established an 18-10 lead.
Nocona’s full-court defense started to affect the game in the second quarter and never let up. This prevented Henrietta from establishing much offense while the Lady Indians forced the pace they wanted. Nocona led 30-14 at halftime.
With the game firmly in hand, Coach Kyle Spitzer called off the press and started emptying his bench as soon as midway through the third quarter.
Despite that, the Lady Indians defense was still effective of shutting down the Lady Cats even in the half court.
Nocona continued to try and play fast, but some sequences were a bit sloppy as some turnovers added up.
Still the Lady Indians never were in trouble, allowing Henrietta only four points in the second half as they won 65-18.
The Indians’ game was expected to be a bit more competitive, though Nocona had won the first game by 18 points.
The first quarter was back and forth for most of it. The Indians came through and made three 3-pointers as they established a 15-10 lead.
Early on there was some chipy plays, resulting in a double foul called that led to some pushing.
Henrietta tried to use its size and try and make shots around the basket, but Nocona answered back with tough contests. Midway through the second quarter, the Bearcats had tied the game back up at 18-18, but Indians finished the quarter on an 8-0 run to take control back. Nocona led 26-18 at halftime.
The third quarter was a low scoring quarter for both teams, but it was in the Indians favor.
Henrietta could not buy a basket while missing free throws, while Nocona made a couple of baskets while knocking in all of its free throw attempts.
The Indians led 34-21 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Bearcats tried to dial up the defensive pressure to try and get back in the game with a full court press.
Nocona did not let this affect them at all. While the Indians did not score a lot, every possession ended with a good shot after running some time off the clock.
With nothing to lose, Henrietta started to try and force some quick shots and some finally started to go in. After scoring only three points in the previous quarter, the Bearcats scored 18, including 10 in the final minute and half of the game.
With the pressure not working, Henrietta started intentionally fouling down the stretch to save time.
The game might have started to get close if senior Landry McCasland did not calmly make eight straight free throws down the stretch.
This allowed the end of the game to come with little drama as Nocona won 49-38.

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