The Bowie Lady Rabbits beat Merkel on Saturday in the area round of the playoffs.
The Lady Rabbits beat the Lady Badgers 53-42, finally pulling away at the end as Merkel tried to keep it close down the stretch.
Bowie came in on a high from the previous week’s dramatic bi-district win against Brock, but it also had been more than a week since then.
With the state experiencing snow and temperatures that caused big problems all week, the Lady Rabbits were lucky to get in one practice the day before.
While on paper it looked like Bowie would be an easy favorite since Merkel was a four seed, there was a reason the Lady Badgers made easy work against one seed Crane in the bi-district, winning 55-40.
Merkel was in a district with state-ranked teams Jim Ned and Wall, giving the Lady Hawks all it could handle in both district games.
The Lady Badgers showed it was not going to be an easy game from the start. The Lady Rabbits found themselves in an early hole and had to climb back to cut the lead to 11-8 heading into the second quarter.
Again Merkel started the quarter strong and Bowie found itself down double-digits and on the verge of being left in the dust.
Some 3-pointers and free throws from Jayci Logan and Abbi Gamblin along with better defense allowed the Lady Rabbits to come back and again cut the score close before the quarter ended. Bowie trailed 22-18 at halftime.
Coming out of halftime, the Lady Rabbits defensive intensity with their full-court press started to do its work. It started to create chaos which rattled Merkel and allowed Bowie to grab control.
The Lady Rabbits scored as many points as they had in the entire first half in the third quarter. Camberley Gunter made two 3-pointers and scored eight points while Logan scored five as Bowie took the lead.
Limiting the Lady Badgers to just eight points, the Lady Rabbits took a 36-30 lead into the fourth quarter along with momentum.
Things continued as Bowie eventually built a double-digit lead, but Merkel was not going to let the Lady Rabbits win so easily.
The Lady Badgers defensive intensity went up and Bowie started to turn the ball over. Merkel cut the lead to five points and seemed to have the Lady Rabbits on the ropes as time was winding down.
Then Gunter nailed a corner 3-pointer that not only put Bowie back up to an eight point lead, but was a momentum killer for the Lady Badgers.
The Lady Rabbits then were able to make enough free throws down the stretch to secure the win by double-digits, avoiding any dramatic finish with the final 53-42.

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