SPORTS
The three has changed basketball
One of the biggest introductions to a sport at all levels was the adoption of the 3-point line in basketball.
With roots dating back to 1945, it was the rival professional basketball league to the NBA, the American Basketball Association that made it popular throughout its nine year history from 1968-1976. The NBA adopted it later for the 1979-80 season.
College basketball flirted with it for most of the 1980s, with several conferences featuring it only during conference play. It wasn’t until the 1986-87 season where it was adopted along all of college basketball.
That same year was also when it was adopted at the high school level across the nation.
Current Lindsay boy’s basketball coach Chris Cornelison was a player at Bowie during that time and remembers the attitude towards the shot was the prevailing strategy for decades to come.
“I don’t think we really looked at it as a gimmick, but we definitely had players that where quality perimeter shooters,” Cornelison said. “Having played for Coach (Gayno) Shelton my freshman through junior year, you definitely had to earn the right to take those shots. Coach Shelton’ players were very well disciplined and you new what shots you were expected to take. I think that during that time as well you were either an inside player or a perimeter player and it was not considered a high percentage shot, especially for the post players.”
Shelton remembers heading into the season not being too worried about it.
“It was okay with me,” Shelton said. “I remember I got a call from the Wichita Falls Times Record News sports writer. The question he was asking me was do you think it will change the game? Do you think this and that. I said, I don’t think so. I said what we will use it for is for defensive reference on how we are going to cover this team. But was I wrong? Did it change the game? Well, it surely did.”
The game was dominated by tall, large post players for most of its history.
Now at the highest level only one is usually required and the ability to move their feet in space on defense in order to not give up open shots is a requirement to get important minutes.
Post ups used to be a feature of most offenses. Nowadays at the highest level, post ups are saved for when a player gets a favorable mismatch on a significantly shorter player since defenses use a switching style defenses in order to not give up open shots from the perimeter.
The dominant tall players now are rarely just planted in the post. They are more skilled then ever, with the ability to handle the ball, shoot from the perimeter as well as score from the post.
While it wasn’t an overnight change, the biggest change in philosophy has come in the last decade. At the professional level, 3-point attempts were at 18.4 a game 10 years ago to almost doubling that this past season at 35.2 attempts a game. Despite almost every player at every position shooting them now growing up, the percentage has hovered around a 35 percent average since the mid 1990s.
The answer to why is as simple as math according to Prairie Valley boy’s basketball coach Seth Stephens.
“The simple way to look at it is, if you can shoot 35 percent from three, you’re already at 1.05 points per possession,” Stephens said. “That’s a significantly lower percentage than the 50 percent you have to shoot from inside the arc to get to just one point per passion.”
In other words, a team shooting league average from the 3-point line will score as many points as team making half of its shots from inside the arc. One is easier to achieve than the other.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Nocona Indians wrapped up their first playoff berth since 2005 with a dominant win against Chico on Thursday at home.
The Indians won 10-0 in four and half innings due to run-rule to earn the district’s final playoff spot and break a nearly two decade drought.
Nocona was in a similar situation last year after beating Chico in the first game before losing twice more to the Dragons, once in the regular season finale and then in the play-in series.
The Indians won the first game earlier in the week 9-4, but knew they could play better. On Thursday they then proved it.
In the bottom of the first inning, Nocona got the scoring going as Wesley Murphey hit an RBI double. Two batters later, Landon Fatheree drove in two runs with a double.
Konnor Harrington followed with a groundout that scored another run as the Indians led 4-0.
In the second inning, Nocona kept up the pressure. Brody Langford drove in a run with a single. Later with the bases loaded, Caden Belcher was hit by a pitch that scored a run. A later passed ball allowed one more run to score as the Indians extended their lead to 7-0.
Nocona got one more run in the third inning. With the bases loaded, Wesley Murphey grounded into a fielder’s choice out that scored one run to make it 8-0.
The Indians got the final two runs they needed in the fourth inning. Walker Murphey and RJ Walker hit back-to-back RBI singles to put Nocona up 10-0.
Chico needed to score at least one run to prevent the game from ending early due to run-rule. Instead Walker Murphey completed the shutout performance by retiring the next three batters to end the game and the Dragon’s season.
The Indians won 10-0 and earned the district’s final playoff spot.
Wesley Murphey and Fatheree drove in two runs each to lead the team. Walker Murphey led the team with three hits. The team finished with 11 hits and drew six walks.
Walker Murphey also allowed zero runs and one hit while striking out five batters and walking none. The defense behind him committed only one fielding error.
Coach Zach Denson was beyond proud of this team for breaking the playoff drought.
“The amount of growth that they have shown throughout the year has been the most incredible I’ve seen in 13 years of coaching,” Denson said. “We went on a little skid in the middle of the year and that could have derailed our young team, but it actually brought us closer together as a unit.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
The Bowie Jackrabbits were able to clinch the final playoff spot on Thursday with a senior night home win against Henrietta.
The Jackrabbits won 6-1 in a game where all of the offensive action happened in the first three innings for both teams.
Bowie came into the game needing to win. Failing to do so would mean setting up a series with the Bearcats for the final playoff spot. If the Jackrabbits just took care of business against a team they had already beaten once pretty easily then they could avoid that whole situation.
Henrietta knew it was playing for the future of its season and struck first. A one out double followed by a single two batters later put the Bearcats up 1-0 against Bowie’s top pitcher Edmond De Leon on the mound.
The offense responded in the same inning with a two-out rally. Troy Kesey hit a single and Hayden Rodriguez drew a walk. De Leon then hit a double to drive one run in.
Cooper Hammer was then hit a by a pitch to load the bases up. Rayder Mann then drew a walk that scored one run and the Jackrabbits led 2-1 before the next batter popped up for out three.
Bowie added to that lead in the second inning. Boston Farris led off with a triple. Tucker Jones then hit a groundball to second base that resulted in an error that allowed Farris to score and make it 3-1 for the Jackrabbits.
Bowie then extended the lead in the third inning. Hammer hit a one-out single. Mann and Cy Egenbacher followed with hits that resulted in fielding errors for the Bearcats. The Jackrabbits scored one run on the second error.
Farris then hit a single that drove in another run. After a strikeout, a wild pitch then allowed another runner to score as Bowie was up 6-1. Another strikeout ended the scoring for the Jackrabbits.
The next three and half innings saw neither team score runs, though both had several chances with two runners getting on at times.
Henrietta’s best chance came in the fifth inning with two singles, but De Leon and Bowie’s defense shut that down. De Leon retired the final seven batters he faced as the Jackrabbits won 6-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Last week all of the area schools competed in their district’s tennis tournament and several schools had athletes qualify for the regional tournament.
In the end, 10 athletes finished second or better at district to move on for a chance to qualify for state.
Unfortunately, no players from Bowie were able to break through and qualify.
Many faced early seeding opponents from tennis power Vernon that ended their tournament.
The highest finish for a Bowie player was Lily Hodges who placed fourth in girls singles.
From Nocona, one girl was able to break through as Kaygan Stone finished second in girls singles to qualify for regionals.
Stone has had a tough year, dealing with shoulder problems that shortened both her volleyball and basketball seasons, but she bounced back this spring to qualify for regionals in tennis.
Her teammate Melissa Segura was not so lucky, as she finished third in girls singles and just missed the cut, having to settle for an alternate spot
At the 1A tournament, several schools had multiple athletes in one division qualify.
From Saint Jo, last year’s state qualifying girl’s doubles team of Kyler Dunn and Taylor Patrick won the division.
They beat out the second place finisher and their teammates, the girl’s doubles team of Maxey Johnson and Bailey Nobile, who also qualified for regionals.
From Gold-Burg, Jimena Garcia and Alyson Rojas placed first and second in girls singles to move on to the regional tournament.
Other schools only had one team or individual.
From Forestburg, the mixed doubles team of Jesse Wadsworth and Alli Cisneros finished second as they qualified for regionals.
From Prairie Valley, Case Carpenter finished second in the boys singles division.
To read the full story and see pictures of all of the qualifiers, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
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