The Bowie Lady Rabbits kept the good times rolling in Jacksboro on New Year’s Day with their first district game following the holiday break.
The Lady Rabbits won 43-30 against a Lady Tigers team that gave them a tough first half.
Bowie came into the game with a 1-1 district record before the break and the team had won a non-district game earlier in the week at Rio Vista. Jacksboro was looking to get its first district win.
With the game being on New Year’s Day, at noon, on the road the team did not start the game off with a lot of energy.
The Lady Tigers played a 2-3 zone on defense, though their defenders pressured shooters out on the perimeter to try and funnel players to driving to the rim where big Erin Jones was waiting.
The Lady Rabbits also had to worry about Jones on the other end. Macon Chambers got the assignment, but usually had at least one other defender ready to come help. That and some constant full-court pressure is what Bowie did on defense throughout the game.
The first half was low paced and low scoring. Bowie made a couple of 3-pointers in the first quarter and led 9-8.
For most of the second quarter the Lady Rabbits could not score. A couple of turnovers Jacksboro converted to points in transition as it built a 13-9 lead. Bowie scored four points in the final two minutes to avoid being shut out as the Lady Tigers led 15-13 at halftime.
The Lady Rabbits came out in the third quarter and more than doubled their total from the first half. Their top scorers Taygon Jones and Maddie Mandela started driving to the basket more aggressively than just settling for 3-pointers and got the free throw line and opened up more scoring opportunities.
The energy went up on the other end as Bowie continued to do a good job of preventing post opportunities for Jones and daring Jacksboro’s other players to keep up with the increased pace of play.
The Lady Rabbits led 27-20 heading into the fourth quarter.
Bowie’s lead quickly grew to double-digits and the team was easily able to coast to the finish even with the Lady Tigers scoring the most points in the final period. The Lady Rabbits had five different players make one basket as they won by the comfortable margin 43-30.

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