SPORTS
Nocona comes back from 15 points to win area game 48-36

The Nocona Lady Indians were able to brush off a rough start to beat Merkel on Thursday night in the area round of the playoffs.
The Lady Indians made up a 15 point deficit in the second quarter to ultimately win 48-36 against the Lady Badgers.
Nocona came into the game with a lot of confidence and the favorites. The Lady Indians last loss came in early December and the team is ranked 13th in the most recent state poll.
Merkel was coming into the game looking for some revenge. In both 2019 and 2020 the Lady Badgers had lost to Nocona in the area round.
The district runner-ups were led by senior Alyssa O’Malley who is committed to Texas A&M-Kingsville. She was the focal point for a lot of the Lady Indians game plan heading into the game.
For whatever reason, Nocona did not start the game well for the second straight game. Unlike in its bi-district game against Eastland, this slow start showed clearly on the scoreboard.
The Lady Badgers trapping zone that was geared towards the perimeter seemed to make the Lady Indians hesitant to attack for whatever reason on offense. Shots that were thrown up were just not going in the basket in the first quarter.
On the other end, O’Malley and teammate Kyleigh Mauldin were finding each other with smart cuts off the ball. Merkel’s confidence continued to grow the longer Nocona went without scoring, taking advantage of some turnovers to score in transition and go up 10-0.
The Lady Indians first basket came with less than two minutes to play in the first quarter, but it did not spark things. The Lady Badgers finished the quarter on a 6-1 run as they led 16-3 heading into the second quarter.
Early on, Merkel’s lead peaked at 18-3 and things looked bleak unless Nocona’s offense would wake up.
Thankfully the Lady Indians’ defense found a new level after getting burned on some off ball movement in the first quarter. Raylee Sparkman drew the assignment to shadow/deny O’Malley the ball and she along with her teammates did a better job defending her the rest of the quarter.
Still Nocona was down 18-5 midway through the quarter despite already being in the bonus for drawing fouls. The team had found limited opportunities to push the ball in transition and girls still seemed hesitant attack the rim thanks to Merkel’s physical play and active hands.
That all changed in the two minutes.
Guards Megyn Meekins and Skyler Smith started getting into the paint and scoring, whether off of transition opportunities thanks to improved defense or just finding the soft spot for floaters.
Nocona went on a 9-0 run to cut the lead to 18-14 with a little less than two minutes to play. Eventually the Lady Indians took the lead 19-18 in the final second as a 3-pointer from Reagan Phipps went in.
Merkel did tie the score up 19-19 on a free throw in the final seconds before halftime, but the momentum had fully swung the Lady Indians way by that point.
The third quarter was the most competitive of the game.
Nocona got the lead early and led for most of the time. More players got in on the scoring action as five different players made at least one basket.
Merkel was not just laying down to quit though. After that long scoring drought in the second quarter, the team kept within one basket of Nocona for most of the third quarter.
O’Malley was still proving tough to contain as she scored six of her team’s 10 points. At one point the Lady Badgers even took back the lead 28-26 late in the quarter.
Nocona closed out the quarter well on a 7-1 run to go up 33-28 heading into the fourth quarter.
At some point in the third quarter the Lady Indians switched Meekins onto O’Malley to give Sparkman a break and for a different look.
Merkel cut Nocona’s lead back to one basket with a 3-pointer early in the quarter. The game’s pace slowed down in the fourth quarter as the Lady Indians were quick to look for a reason to start stalling the ball.
Up 39-34 with 4:06 left to play, Nocona started to run clock. Unfortunately, it led to steal and layup for the Lady Badgers that cut the lead to 39-36.
Another turnover gave Merkel an opportunity to get even closer, but the team missed on its possession. That would be as close as the Lady Badgers got.
Following a time out, Merkel tried to employ a full-court press, but Meekins broke through and was able to get all the way to the basket for a layup to up the lead to 41-36.
The defense held from there on out and Nocona forced the Lady Badgers to send players to the free throw line to save time.
The lead continued to grow as the Lady Indians made 7-8 of the free throws down the stretch while continuing to shut down Merkel on defense.
The Lady Badgers were dealt the final blow as O’Malley fouled out with 1:21 left in the game and Nocona up 10 points.
The Lady Indians made two more free throws as they won 48-36.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
SPORTS
Bowie track runs at Peaster in final meet before district

The Bowie track team competed in its final meet before district last week on March 27 at Peaster.
The boy’s team finished fourth overall while the girl’s team got seventh place.
The boy’s team had three athletes who won their events.
Russell Anderson won the 400 meter race, Braden Rhyne won the triple jump and Tyler Richey won the pole vault events.
Some other highlights for the team included Cody West getting second in the shot put, the 4×400 relay team getting second place, Richey getting fourth in the 110 meter hurdles, Rhyne getting third in the 300 meter hurdles and Jorge De Leon getting fourth in both the discus and shot put.
Brayden Willett got second place in the 3200 meters, third place in the 1600 meters and fourth place in the 800 meter race.
The Lady Rabbit highlights included Dallie Monroe getting fourth in the shot put, Laney Segura getting fifth in the 800 meters and Olivia Richey getting sixth in the 100 meters.
The 4×200 relay got fifth place and the 4×100 relay got sixth place to earn points.
Bowie competes in the district rack meet this week at Iowa Park. The running finals are scheduled for 5 p.m. on April 4.
Results for all Bowie varsity athletes who finished sixth or better are in the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
SPORTS
Montague County has nine named all-region basketball players

Nocona’s Meg Meekins (above) not only earned all-region honors, she also earned all-state honors and was named the Texas Girls Coaches Association 1A-4A Player of the Year.
Other Montague County basketball athletes who were named to all-region teams including Rayder Mann from Bowie and Reagan Phipps from Nocona. From Saint Jo, Payzlie Cervantes, Taylor Patrick and Barrett Johnson were named to the all-region team. From Forestburg, Jesus Sanchez, Brenna Briles and Kyler Willett were named to the all-region team.
For pictures of all nine athletes, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
SPORTS
Baseball Roundup

Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers lost a close game at home against Perrin-Whitt on March 28.
The Pirates won 8-3, only taking the lead in the seventh inning after the Panthers had come back to tie up the game.
Saint Jo was coming into the game after a close one-run loss in extra innings against Perrin-Whitt earlier last week.
The second game started with two scoreless innings before the Pirates got on the board in the third inning. A line drive into left field resulted in a fielding error that allowed one run to score. A double followed that drove in another run as Perrin-Whitt went up 2-0.
The Pirates added to the lead in the fourth inning, driving in a run on a single to extend its lead to 3-0.
Saint Jo answered back in the same inning. Charlie Evans drove in one run with a single. Later in the inning, with a runners on second on third base, the Perrin-Whitt pitcher balked twice, an illegal pitching motion, that allowed both runners to advance to home plate. The Panthers had tied the score at 3-3.
After a scoreless fifth and sixth inning, the Pirates had the pressure on in the seventh inning.
With the bases loaded, a hit batter and later a walk scored two runs for Perrin-Whitt. Then a bases clearing double scored three more runs to break the game open in the final inning.
Saint Jo tried to answer in its final at-bats, getting two singles and drawing a walk but could not get enough things going to score.
The Pirates won 8-3.
Evans led the team with one RBI and two hits as the team finished with five hits and drew six walks.
Sam Martin allowed eight runs (two earned) on seven hits while striking out six and walking three batters in 6.2 innings of work. The defense committed three fielding errors overall.
Nocona
The Nocona Indians had a tough start to district last week, losing both games in their series against Lindsay.
The Knights won 11-4 and 7-3 against the Indians last week as Nocona hopes to get back into the playoffs.
Nocona was coming off a string of good wins the previous week against smaller schools, but knew Lindsay would be tough.
The first game saw Lindsay continually score runs in the first four innings, building a 9-0 lead before the Indians could get on the board in the bottom of the fourth inning with two runs.
Nocona added two more runs in the fifth inning to cut the lead to 9-4 and get some momentum heading into the final two innings.
After a scoreless sixth inning, the Knights scored two runs in the seventh inning to extend their lead and eventually win 11-4.
Miller Jentry led the team with two RBIs while RJ Walker also drove in two runs. The team had only two hits, but drew nine walks in the game.
Brody Langford allowed six runs (two earned) on five hits while striking out three in three innings pitches. Landon Fatheree allowed five runs (two earned) on seven hits while striking out one and walking four. The defense committed five fielding errors.
Nocona knew it could play better and tried to in the second game later in the week while playing on the road at Lindsay.
The Knights again took the early lead, scoring in three of the first four innings and going up 6-0. The Indians scored two runs in the fifth inning and one in the top of the sixth inning to initially cut the lead to 6-3. Lindsay answered with one run in the bottom of the sixth inning and held on to win 7-3.
Walker Murphey led the team with two RBIs after hit a double. Kutter Cabrera drove in the other run for Nocona. The Indians finished with three hits and drew only two walks, making the most of their limited opportunities.
Walker got the start on the mound and allowed seven runs (two earned) on eight hits while striking out six batters and walking two in six innings of work. The defense committed six fielding errors overall.
Bellevue
The Bellevue Eagles started district last week playing a series against fellow 1A team Bryson.
Unfortunately, the Cowboys won both games handily 11-1 and 10-1.
Bellevue was coming off a tough week where it hung tough playing 2A teams Nocona and Chico, not getting wins but competing well against the more experienced and bigger schools.
Unfortunately against Bryson in the first game, a few bad defensive innings threw away a good start to the game. Bryce Ramsey drew a leadoff walk in the first inning and stole his way around to second base, third base before eventually coming home on a steal.
Bellevue led 1-0 after the first inning.
That was the highlight as the Cowboys scored four runs in both the third and fourth inning to take control of the game. Bryson eventually added three more in the sixth inning.
The Eagles needed to score at least one run to avoid getting run-ruled and play the seventh inning, but could not do it. The Cowboys won 11-1.
Walker Strahan, Ryan Jones and Ramsey each had one hit to lead the team. With the Eagles drawing only one walk, it was a tough day swinging the bats for Bellevue.
Defensively, the Eagles allowed 12 hits and walked four batters, though avoided committing any fielding errors.
The second game on the road was not much better.
Bryson built up a 6-0 lead before Bellevue scored in the fifth inning. Cam Blaylock scored on the base paths to cut the lead to 6-1. The Cowboys responded in the same inning scoring four runs to go up 10-1.
The game cuts off on the Game Changer app from there.
Ramsey led the team with three hits in the game and Strahan was behind him with two hits as the team finished with six total and drew one walk.
Defensively, Bryson had nine hits and drew eight walks, but Bellevue did not commit any fielding errors.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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