SPORTS
Lady Rabbits fall in district opener to Holliday
The Bowie Lady Rabbits started district on Friday with their toughest game of the season taking on state-ranked Holliday.
The Lady Eagles won 71-15, showing why they are so highly ranked and one of the top teams in the area regardless of classification.
The Lady Rabbits came into the game knowing the challenge would tough.
Holliday was going to be a favorite to win the district title coming into this season with Nocona’s exit after three straight second place finishes. However, the Lady Eagles became state title contenders when the best player in the Wichita Falls area, Iowa State commit Jalynn Bristow, moved to the district from Rider for her senior year.
Bowie is not a tall team for 3A, but have made up for it with tenacity and physical play. However, that can sometimes only take you so far when a team is so outsized and the other team knows how to use it to its advantage.
It was clear to see from the opening tip how physically overmatched the Lady Rabbits were across the board, outsized at almost every position.
Bowie tried to limit Bristow, who is listed at 6 foot 3 inches, from getting the ball close around the basket by using a box-and-one defense, putting a defender in tight man coverage on her while everyone else is playing a 2-2 zone with an emphasis on trying to wall off the paint.
Lady Rabbit Coach Matthew Miller was fine letting Holliday shoot from the perimeter.
It was a good strategy as the Lady Eagles only made three 3-pointers in the game, but the lack of execution from Bowie meant its defensive strategy seemed to affect Holliday little.
The Lady Eagles scored however they wanted, mostly inside the 3-point arc, and despite the Lady Rabbits best efforts, got the ball to Bristow whenever they wanted and played off of that.
Holliday scored 21 points in the first two quarters to build a big lead, but that was mostly because Bowie could not buy a basket.
The Lady Eagles came out in a full-court trapping zone style to try and use their length to bother the Lady Rabbits from initiating offense. Bowie did a good job of not committing many turnovers getting the ball up the court to set up its half court offense.
In fact, some the Lady Rabbits most successful offense came from breaking the press and getting the ball to Kayleigh Crow ahead of the defense to finish at the rim. She led the team with six points.
Unfortunately, when set up in the half court is when the length seemed to bother Bowie players as passes were tipped or misjudged due to Holliday’s players being much bigger than what they are used to.
That height also seemed to dissuade drives to the basket as possessions seemed to end when someone decided they had enough room to chuck a 3-point shot in the hole of the zone. Unfortunately, only one went in all game for the Lady Rabbits from Ziba Robbins, who finished with the second most points on the team with five.
Despite the height differential, Bowie did not get abused rebounding the basketball on either side outside of a few sequences. To be honest Holliday did not miss that much so its chances to chase offensive rebounds were limited, but the Lady Rabbits battled well in that area outside of some balls that bounced right for only the tallest players on the court.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Bowie boys
The Bowie Jackrabbits had a good tournament back from the Christmas break last week, playing four games at Bridgeport.
The Jackrabbits went 3-1 overall, with the one loss coming against a bigger schools that is state-ranked.
Bowie started the tournament playing a small but athletic team in 4A Western Hills that liked to press on defense and shoot a lot of 3-pointers.
The Jackrabbits started the game out well, going up 14-6. Bowie was able to stay in control up 25-18 at halftime. The Cougars rode the hot outside shooting of one of their players, but the Jackrabbits had more of a team effort offensively throughout the game that never wavered.
Bowie won easily 51-38 to start off the tournament well. Rayder Mann led the team with 15 points while Gaige Goodman was second with 10 points and Adam Pickett had nine points.
The second game did not go well as the Jackrabbits were matched up with 4A state-ranked team Burkburnett.
Unlike the previous game, the Bulldogs press defense sped up the game to a pace Bowie did not want to be. After a close first quarter, Burkburnett had two quarters it scored more than 20 points that the Jackrabbits just could not match. The Bulldogs won 78-47.
Mann led the team with 17 points while Goodman was second with seven points.
The second day saw Bowie play previous Montague County rival Nocona for the first time since 2022.
The Indians led early 10-4, but the Jackrabbits cut into the lead and trailed only 20-16 at halftime. Bowie’s offense had a good third quarter, equaling its first half total on offense while limiting Nocona to seven points.
The Jackrabbits then made enough of their free throws in the fourth quarter to keep the Indians at bay as they won 41-34.
Mann led the team with 12 points while Bradly Horton was second with 10 points.
Bowie was able to take that win into its final game of the tournament, playing 4A Bonham. The Jackrabbits beat the Warriors 53-39 to close out the tournament on a good note.
Bowie girls
The Bowie Lady Rabbits came back from the holiday break and played a non-district warm-up game at Pottsboro on Friday to get back into shape.
The state-ranked 3A Lady Cardinals team won 56-35 against the Lady Rabbits.
Bowie had a great week heading into the Christmas break. The Lady Rabbits had started district 2-0 with wins against Iowa Park and Jacksboro. With district play waiting for the team this week, Bowie had one game to get its see legs back.
It did not start well for the Lady Rabbits. Pottsboro went ahead 19-6. Bowie had nowhere to go but up as it cut the lead to 25-15 at halftime.
Then the Lady Cardinals responded with a huge 24 point third quarter that put the game out of reach for the Lady Rabbits. Bowie finished strong with 15 points in the fourth quarter, but it was not enough to make up the big lead.
Pottsboro won 56-35.
Parker Riddle led the team with 12 points while Hanna Bell was second with 11 points.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
For more pictures of the Bowie boys at the Bridgeport tournament, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6871607&T=1
The Bellevue basketball teams both played in the playoffs for the first time in several years. The Lady Eagles finished fourth in the district to qualify after missing the previous season. In the bi-district round, Bellevue had to play the eventual state champs Newcastle.
The Eagles also finished fourth, though they played Saint Jo in a play-in game for third place. Bellevue then had to play state-ranked Graford in the bi-district round before ending its season.
The spring season saw Bellevue bring back its baseball program after many years.
While the team struggled during its initial season, it is a step in the first step for a program that hopes to compete well in the near future. In golf, the Lady Eagles ended up winning the district title to qualify for the regional tournament.
In the fall, both of Bellevue’s cross country teams finished second at district and qualified for regionals.
There, Mattie Broussard was able to qualify for the state meet individually after winning the regional title.
At state, Broussard came in ninth place to earn a medal.
To see pictures and highlights from all of the area schools, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Prairie Valley program had a good spring to start 2024. In tennis Case Carpenter qualified for regionals after finishing second at the district meet in boy’s singles. In golf, the Lady Bulldogs team finished second at the district tournament to qualify for regionals.
To cap off the spring season, Linzie Priddy qualified for the state track meet in the 800 meter race, where she placed ninth overall.
The fall season saw the Lady Bulldogs finish second in district to qualify for the playoffs. In the bi-district round, Prairie Valley held on to beat Vernon Northside in five sets to continue its season one more game. In the area round, the Lady Bulldogs lost to Garner.
In cross country, the program had one boy and one girl qualify for the state meet for the second straight year.
Josh Stout was running at state for the second time and he improved on his first appearance as she placed 29th. Priddy, running at the state cross country meet for her third time, finished 84th.
To see pictures and highlights from all of the area schools, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
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