SPORTS
Nocona basketball teams win at Holliday
Both Nocona basketball teams were able to go to Holliday and win important games by close margins on Tuesday night.
The Lady Indians were able to win 54-51 to close out the program’s fourth straight district title. The Indians’ 56-55 win puts them in great position to close out district play in sole possession of fourth place.
The Nocona girls came into the game knowing it would be tough. The Lady Eagles only district loss has come against the Lady Indians and the team would be returning one of their starters from injury.
Nocona got out to a promising start, even though the team was thrown off when Holliday played an uncharacteristic zone defense early.
Megyn Meekins scored nine of her team’s 14 points in the first quarter and the team made three 3-pointers. More players got involved scoring in the second quarter as the team made three more 3-pointers against the zone. The Lady Indians led 27-19 at halftime.
The third quarter saw both teams combine for nearly 40 points. Nocona continued to be hot from 3-point range, making four in the quarter.
Holliday doubled its first half total with shots near the rim. Both of the Lady Eagles leading scorers in the game made multiple shots. While Holliday did not cut into the lead much, the team was still within shooting distance heading to the fourth quarter with Nocona leading 45-39.
The Lady Indians slowed down the pace to stall and make Holliday get aggressive and also making every possession more valuable.
Down the stretch with freshman and sophomore guards Meekins and Skyler Smith getting sent to the free throw line, the duo went 5-7 to keep Nocona ahead.
Holliday made a charge and cut the lead to one basket with the ball for the last shot. A desperate 3-pointer missed to secure the Lady Indians win 54-51.
The Nocona boy’s were coming into the game following a disappointing loss against rival Bowie on its home floor. The first game against Holliday had slipped away in the last few minutes of what was an evenly matched contest.
Nocona did not start the game well. The Eagles led 17-7 after the first quarter. The Indians rebounded in the second quarter, getting most of their points from their bench players and cutting the lead down a bit to 29-21 at halftime.
Both teams scored a lot in the third quarter, but Nocona outscored Holliday 22-16 to make it a one score game down 45-43 heading into the fourth quarter with the momentum.
The Indians took the lead early in the final period and it was back and forth until the end of the game.
Nocona was relying on Brady McCasland making shots and drawing free throws and postman Ryder Oswald off the bench for its scoring in the much slower paced fourth quarter.
With the score tied at 51-51, Holliday got on offensive rebound putback to take the lead 53-51 with 13 seconds left. After a time out, McCasland made a 3-pointer to take back the lead 54-54 with nine seconds left.
Following another time out, a failed lob play from the Eagles led to a scramble for the ball where McCasland got it and was fouled.
With the time running down to .7 seconds left, the Nocona bench thought the time had run out and rushed onto the court in celebration. This led to a technical foul.
McCasland would still get his free throws to shoot, but Holliday also would also get two free throws as well and the ball at midcourt for the final shot of the game thanks to the technical foul.
McCasland stepped up to the line and sunk both clutch free throws to give him a game high 22 points and put Nocona up 56-53. The Eagles returned the favor as their player made both of his free throws to cut the lead to 56-55.
After two time outs, Holliday launched a desperation 3-pointer that missed to give the Indians the upset win.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
Bowie
The Bowie Lady Rabbits won on the road on Tuesday night, winning in Vernon to improve their district record to 3-2.
The Lady Rabbits won in straight sets, with two of the three being pretty competitive.
Bowie was coming off a tough loss at Holliday and needed to bounce back against the Lady Lions.
The first set was as competitive as it could be. The Lady Rabbits barely escaped with the win 25-23 to go up early in the match.
Following the big momentum swing of pulling out the close set, Bowie then went on to dominate in set two. Vernon never got anything going as the Lady Rabbits rolled over the Lady Lions 25-8 to go up 2-0.
Vernon woke up for the final set, not ready to roll over and give Bowie set three so easily. It was competitive and though not quite as dramatic as set one, the Lady Rabbits did have to execute at the end to close it out. Bowie won 25-20 to win the set and the match 3-0.
Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians won their ninth match in a row with a win on the road at Collinsville.
The Lady Indians won a tight match 3-1, with all but one of the sets being competitive.
Nocona had barely been challenged in the past several weeks, but the Lady Pirates offered a challenge.
The Lady Indians barely won sets one and four, winning by the smallest margin in both with the score being 26-24.
Collinsville did win set two 25-22 to initially tie the match up, also winning the first set off of Nocona in the last eight matches.
The Lady Indians bounced back strong to win set three in the most one-sided set of the match 25-15 before clutching things out in the final set to win.
Saint Jo vs Forestburg
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers won their second district match on Tuesday with a win against Forestburg.
The Lady Panthers won in straight sets against the Lady Horns. The set scores were 25-9, 25-14 and 25-14.
Saint Jo came in expecting to win as the team is planning another playoff run later this season. The win moves the Lady Panthers to 2-0 in district and into first place.
Missing scores
Bellevue had a bye-game earlier this week.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Prairie Valley Lady Bulldogs won their first district match at Gold-Burg on Tuesday night.
The Lady Bulldogs won 3-1, coming back to win after losing the opening set of the match.
Prairie Valley was coming into the match after losing its opening district match at Saint Jo the previous week in ugly fashion. For the Lady Bears, it was their opening district game.
Last year the two teams battled for second place in the district, ultimately needing to have a play-in game after splitting the regular season matches. It was Gold-Burg that came out on top last year.
This year, both teams look radically different with much younger rosters and less depth overall.
The Lady Bears grabbed control with their good serving and scrappy defensive style in the first set. They led 16-9 at one point.
Prairie Valley came back to tie the set up at 17-17, but once Gold-Burg broke the serve it was in control for the rest of the set.
The Lady Bears went 8-2 to close the set, winning 25-19 to take the lead.
The second set saw the Lady Bulldogs get under control to play a bit more solid, not getting sucked into playing Gold-Burg’s style of play. Prairie Valley led 15-10, but the Lady Bears tied up the score at 16-16.
The Lady Bulldogs then went on a good streak of good serving and solid play to close out the set. Prairie Valley went 9-1 on its way to win 25-17 to tie the match up at 1-1.
The third set went all to the Lady Bulldogs. Gold-Burg struggled with serve-receive and Prairie Valley was not bailing them out with service errors.
The Lady Bulldogs dominated, winning 25-6 to take the lead 2-1 and with a big boost of momentum.
The opening 20 points of set four was competitive with Prairie Valley leading only 11-9 at that point. Then the Lady Bulldogs got hot from the service line again and Gold-Burg had not answer.
Prairie Valley extended its lead to 20-10 and everyone could see the end was near.
The Lady Bears did win six of the final 11 points of the set to make it respectable, but the Lady Bulldogs won 25-16 to win the set and the match 3-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
County cross country teams ran at Lindsay and at Prairie Valley on Wednesday morning.
The Nocona boy’s team got first running at Lindsay while the Bowie team finished third.
At Prairie Valley, the Bellevue girl’s team finished first overall while the hosts finished second. On the boy’s side, it was Prairie Valley that won first while Bellevue finished third.
The Nocona Indians were led by Claudio Segura who finished first overall with a time of 18:42. The top five Nocona runners included Ivan Vera (4th), Freddy Duran (5th), Omar Salinas (7th) and Jhett Miller (11th).
The Jackrabbit team was led by Alex Castro who finished second with a time of 18:55. Bowie’s top five runners included Liam Pearson (10th), Ryder McChesney (20th), Monte Mayfield (24th and Kaz Williams (38th).
The Nocona girls were one runner short of competing as a team. Jayce Rose had the highest finish, getting fifth place with a time of 15:12.
Bowie had only girl compete, with Samara McChesney finishing second in the JV race with a time of 18:55.
At Prairie Valley’s race, the Lady Eagles were led by Brylie Hager who finished second with a time of 14:41. Bellevue’s top five runners also included Brittany Gill (3rd), Kaycee Conner (5th), Callie Martin (6th) and Tristan Shook (7th).
The Prairie Valley girls finished second overall and were led by Linzie Priddy who finished first with a time of 14:31. The top five runners also included Natalee Young (9th), Renee Stout (12th), Christy Anderson (13th) and Kennedy Stone (14th).
The Prairie Valley boys team ended up finishing first overall in that race. Josh Stout was the team’s top runner finishing 3rd with a time of 20:08. The Bulldogs top five runners also included JR Jones (4th), Tyson Easterling (5th), Matt Deen (13th) and Hunter Camden (18th).
Bellevue finished third and was led by River Trail who finished 2nd with a time of 19:18. The Eagles top five runners included Brycen Bancroft (9th), Jayson Gill (16th), Ryan Jones (19th) and Evan Chavez (21st).
Gold-Burg did not have enough runners in either race to compete as a team, but some still did well. Isaac Renteria finished first overall in the boys race with a time of 17:52. In the girls race, Ollie Gaston finished fourth overall with a time of 16:35.
Pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News for results of all varsity runners.
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