The Nocona Indians opened their season against Saint Jo at home on Friday night.
The Indians pulled out a close win 53-46 against their 1A neighbor Panthers, a rare matchup between the two schools.
Nocona came into the game following its third fourth-place-finish in the district that resulted in a tough loss against state-ranked Peaster in the first round of the playoffs. The team returns only two starters, but several players with varsity experience that will be looked at to contribute in bigger ways this year.
Saint Jo is coming off a season where it finished third place in district and had a disappointing first round exit in the playoffs against Perrin-Whitt. Unlike the Indians, the Panthers return all but one player from last year’s team.
The thing these teams have in common is that both have new head coaches, Brody Wilson at Nocona and Ryan Bruce at Saint Jo.
The game started off fast, frantic and sloppy for both sides with neither wanting to give an inch. Combined with few fouls being called early on, every point felt it was earned with bruises.
Nocona opened with some full court pressing, but outside of a couple turnovers it did not drum up much chaos in Saint Jo’s offense though it did keep the game up-tempo.
The Panthers led 12-8 after the first quarter as both teams missed several chances around the rim, but the physical play and first game rustiness meant few went in.
The second quarter saw Saint Jo extend its lead up to 19-13 and led for most of the quarter. Brice Durham made two 3-pointers during the quarter, making three in the first half and scoring 10 points to lead the Panthers in scoring.
Nocona was outhustling Saint Jo on the glass, getting offensive rebounds from Conley Kleinhans that resulted in multiple extra looks, but still not much was going in.
Down 22-17 with two minutes before halftime, the Indians went on a 7-0 run to close the quarter and led 24-22 heading into the second half.
The second half saw Nocona start to knock down some perimeter shots. Michael Wetmore made three 3-pointers in the quarter, some off the dribble, to help the Indians extend their first real lead of the game to 40-32 heading into the fourth quarter.
Saint Jo tried to make up the difference, but the Indians started to stall on offense which eventually led to free throws. The Panthers were never too far behind, but could never get closer than six points.
With Kleinhans scoring seven of his team’s 13 points in the final period, Nocona was able to close out the win 53-46 to earn the first win of the season.

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