The Nocona Lady Indians won their first tournament early last week at Decatur playing against bigger schools.
The Lady Indians went 4-0 to win the championship despite coming into the tournament with only three practices and two games under their belts.
Nocona was the smallest school in the tournament and also, probably, the shortest team. That is nothing new for the Lady Indians dating back to last season.
Still, Nocona got tested right away with its game against 4A Canyon Randall. The Lady Indians led from the second quarter on before surviving a fourth quarter offensive explosion where both teams combined to score 46 points.
Nocona just held on to win by one basket 56-53.
Skyler Smith led the team with 23 points and 12 rebounds while Meg Meekins scored 22 points and had four assists.
The first day did not get any easier playing against 3A Wall. The Lady Hawks made a bunch of 3-pointers throughout the game that allowed them to keep up with the Lady Indians despite Nocona leading from the start again.
It was another high scoring fourth quarter where Wall made up some of the lead, but ran out of time against the Lady Indians’ ball control late in the game.
Nocona won another close game 72-67 to finish day one 2-0.
Meekins led the team with 29 points and six assists while Smith scored 21 points and grabbed a team high nine rebounds. Avery Crutsinger scored 11 points in the game as well while Reagan Phipps swiped a team high two steals and Aubree Kleinhans grabbed six rebounds.
The Lady Indians then had a rematch against 3A City View, a team they beat to begin the season only the previous week.
It went similar to that game, though Nocona slowed down the pace in the second half after building a double-digit lead in the first quarter. The Lady Indians played almost even the final three quarters and won 59-46 to qualify for the championship game.
Smith led the team with 22 points and 13 rebounds while Meekins scored 15 points and had four assists. Kleinhans and Phipps each scored six points.
In the championship game, Nocona faced the biggest school in the tournament, 6A Euless Trinity. The Lady Trojans featured taller, longer and more athletic players at almost every position and smother half-court zone defense that looked to feast on passes to the corner.
The Lady Indians were ready as they were making 3-point shots over the zone early on and built a 19-4 lead after the first quarter.
Even with Euless Trinity getting its offense into gear for the next three quarters, Nocona controlled the tempo and kept their lead up for the rest of the game.
With a double-digit lead, the Lady Indians utilized ball control stalling tactics in the second half to make the aggressive Lady Trojan defense pay for overcommitting.
Nocona won with little drama 56-40.
Meekins led the team with 24 points while Smith was second with 11 points while grabbing a team high eight rebounds a had five assists. Kleinhans scored 11 points while making three 3-pointers and Phipps scored six points on good cuts to the basket. Avery Crutsinger grabbed five rebounds while drawing several charges as the team’s undersized post player.
Meekins was named the tournament’s most valuable player and Smith was named to the all-tournament team to go along with the team’s tournament trophy.

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

Gold-Burg boys
The Gold-Burg Bears went into the holiday break following a fun smashing of Wichita Christian at home on Monday night.
The Bears won 76-30 against the Stars where their aggressive press defense produced a layup line of breakaways throughout the whole game.
Gold-Burg was coming into the game following its opening season loss to 3A Bridgeport.
The Bears played the bigger school well despite it being the first game. It was a tight first half with the score tied at 21-21.
The second half saw the Bulls execute offensively better, especially in the fourth quarter to pull ahead by a couple of baskets down the stretch. Bridgeport won 47-40.
The aggressive press and zone defense created many fast break opportunities, but Gold-Burg was sloppy at times trying to play too fast and turned the ball over in some unforced errors.
The Stars only trailed 20-10 after the first quarter, but the Bears defense was a bit more sharper and wore down Wichita Christian even more as the game wore on.
Gold-Burg kept the fast breaking pace up for the rest of the game, scoring 20 or more points in the second and third quarters as well and only scoring 15 in the final period.
The Bears won with little drama 76-30.

Gold-Burg girls
The Gold-Burg Lady Bears had a tough matchup against Wichita Christian at home on Monday night.
The inexperienced Lady Bears lost 53-31 against a hard pressing Lady Stars team.
Gold-Burg returns only one player with varsity experience and the team had no bench players.
Playing a full-court press style team like Wichita Christian is an early season nightmare since the pace will probably be quick and will push the Lady Bears early season fitness level as much as experience handling pressure.
The Lady Stars used it to force some turnovers, but mostly made Gold-Burg pay with exploiting the holes in the Lady Bears’ zone defense.
The Lady Bears broke the press enough times to set up some offense, but were behind from the jump and trailed 34-15 at halftime.
Thankfully Wichita Christian called off its press in the second half and the game was more competitive for Gold-Burg. The Lady Stars only outscored the Lady Bears 18-16.
Unfortunately, it did nothing to make up the double-digit deficit as Wichita Christian won 52-31.

Nocona boys
The Nocona Indians had two close losses on Monday and Tuesday to send them into the holidays with things to work on.
The Indians lost to Howe 72-65 and Vernon 55-52.
Nocona came into the week after easily winning its first game of the season the previous week against Saint Jo.
The Bulldogs proved to be a tougher opponent as they jumped out to 23-15 lead after the first quarter. The pace was calmed down a bit in the second quarter, but Howe had built a double-digit lead 39-27 at halftime.
Nocona could not make up the difference and went into the fourth quarter down 15 points. Only through the Indians best offensive peak of the game did they close the distance, but the Bulldogs made enough free throws to keep them at bay.
In the end, Howe won 72-65.
Nocona then played Vernon on Tuesday afternoon.
It was the opposite of the day before as the Indians came out on fire in the first half, scoring 21 points in the first quarter and leading 35-28.
Nocona scored less than double-digits in both the third and fourth quarters. The Lions kept up the same scoring pace they had in the first half which allowed them to make up the deficit.
The score was tied at 44-44 heading into the fourth quarter. Vernon got a big boost from its leading scorer Adarius Williams scoring seven of his team high 20 points in the fourth quarter.
Nocona’s only scorer in the final period was Stone who scored eight of his team high 20 points in the fourth.
The Lions won 55-52.

Forestburg
The Forestburg Lady Horns were runners up at their first tournament last weekend at Perrin-Whitt while the boy’s team had an up and down experience.
The Lady Horns went 2-1, only losing in the championship game while the Longhorns also went 2-1.
The Forestburg girls team beat tournament host Perrin-Whitt on a late game shot to win 43-42 to start off the tournament. The Lady Horns then beat Community Christian 56-44 to make it to the tournament championship.
Unfortunately, Forestburg lost to Victory Christian 44-28 to finish the tournament on a bit of a sour note.
Brenna Briles was named to the all-tournament team as she led the team in assists while also taking seven charges during the three games.
The Longhorns’ boys team started the tournament by playing district opponent Prairie Valley. Forestburg was able to win easily 51-28 against the Bulldogs. The Longhorns also beat tournament host Perrin-Whitt’s JV team 46-29.
Unfortunately, Forestburg lost a game against Bryson 61-50 to finish 2-1 at the tournament.

Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley basketball teams struggled overall at their first tournament last weekend at Perrin-Whitt.
The Lady Bulldogs went 1-2 while the inexperienced Bulldogs team went 0-3.
The Prairie Valley girls bounced back from its opening loss to Victory Christian 48-23, by beating Bryson 34-21. This put the Lady Bulldogs in the consolation championship game where they played Perrin-Whitt. Unfortunately, Prairie Valley lost 43-27.
The boy’s team played district opponent Forestburg to start the tournament and lost 50-28. The Bulldogs bounced back by playing close games against Bryson and Perrin-Whitt JV teams. Unfortunately, they fell short in those games losing 40-35 and 32-30.

Bellevue girls
The Bellevue Lady Eagles won at Archer City on Tuesday in a one-sided game.
The Lady Eagles won 64-36 against the Lady Cats.
After a slow start in the first quarter with Bellevue leading only 11-6, the Lady Eagles scored 21 points in the second quarter to go into halftime up 32-14.
After another slow quarter to start the second half, Bellevue finished strong by scoring 21 points again in the fourth quarter to close out the game.
The Lady Eagles won easily 64-36.
Cirstin Allen led the team with 26 points as she made eight 3-pointers in the game. Tristan Shook joined her in double-figures with 11 points.

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