The Nocona Lady Indians season came to an end Thursday night in the regional quarterfinals against Peaster.
The Lady Indians won earlier in the week against Wall 59-52 before losing to the Peaster Lady Greyhounds 71-57.
Nocona had to wait more than a week to play the Lady Hawks. Wall did not play their first playoff game before bad weather last week across the state postponed the game further.
The game started off slow for both teams as the Lady Indians led 9-7 after the first quarter.
Wall picked things up in the second quarter offensively and took the lead 24-19 heading into halftime. It was a tight third quarter with the teams combining to score 36 points. Nocona took a narrow lead 40-39 into the fourth quarter.
The Lady Indians offense did not slow down as they kept their lead, making enough free throws down the stretch to hold on to win 59-52.
Averee Kleinhans led Nocona with 28 points while Raylee Sparkman was second with nine points all in the second half.
Coach Kyle Spitzer thought it was a great team win with his post players Karlee Brown and Stephanie Gutierrez stepping up all game.
Nocona played two nights later against a young, but talented Peaster team led by two good sophomores Payton Hull and Brooklyn Bosher.
The Lady Greyhounds tried to drive to the basket all game offensively to make good things happen. Defensively, they tried to keep one girl on Kleinhans hip all game and wall off the paint as best they could.
Fouls were getting called early all game for both teams. Late in the first quarter Kleinhans picked up her third foul. Sptizer made the call to keep her in despite the foul trouble.
Peaster outplayed Nocona in the first quarter, but the Lady Indians trailed only 16-14 heading into the second quarter.
The Lady Greyhounds tried to switch to a zone at one point, but switched back as Nocona had its best stretch of the game. The Lady Indians were getting some offensive rebounds and were doing their things getting out in transition.
It was still a back-and-forth quarter as Peaster came back from down eight at one point. Only a Kleinhans 3-pointer at the buzzer put Nocona back up 34-33 heading into halftime and the game a close one.
The third quarter saw the Lady Indians struggle. Close driving shots that rolled out were turned into quick baskets in transition for the Lady Greyhounds. Peaster started getting loose balls and offensive rebounds.
Nocona did draw a lot of fouls and got the free throw line 10 times, but only made six. With the team only scoring one basket all quarter, the Lady Indians fell behind Peaster by double-digits 56-42 heading into the fourth quarter.
Kleinhans did pick up her fourth foul late in the third and sat for the final minute, but came back in early in the fourth quarter.
While Nocona’s offense did a good job of scoring at its usual pace, the team continued to struggle from the free throw line.
Already in the double-bonus at the start of the quarter and shooting 10 more in the quarter, the team made six again.
The team needed every point it could get because the team could not catch the Lady Greyhounds. Peaster kept its lead at double-digits the entire quarter, even with two of its starters fouling out.
Nocona did not have the 3-point shooting that night to come back as the Lady Indians lost 71-57.

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