The Nocona Lady Indians won possibly their biggest district game of the season as they hosted Windthorst on Tuesday night.
The Lady Indians won 57-40 to stay undefeated on the year against possibly the best team to challenge them in district play.
It was actually the second time the teams have played each other. Back in November the two teams met in the first tournament of the year at Bowie in the championship game. Nocona pulled ahead in the second half to win 64-44, but that win had some disclaimers.
The biggest was the Lady Trojans were coming off winning the state title the previous week in volleyball and came into the tournament with little to no practice time under their belts.
In any sense, nearly two months later and with the stakes higher, it was a whole new ball game for both teams to feel confident heading into the game.
Nocona has yet to lose so far this season and is ranked in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches Poll at the top of the state in the 2A classification.
Since that loss to the Lady Indians, Windthorst had only one other loss on the year against Paradise in another tournament. The Lady Trojans were ranked 14th in the state in the same poll.
It was a classic contrast of styles matchup as the smaller, faster Nocona team matched up against a tall and big Windthorst frontline that wanted to post up and mash the Lady Indians rebounding the ball.
The first quarter was back and forth. Windthorst was able to get the ball into one of its post players and she did a good job of drawing fouls as Nocona sent aggressive double-teams. This also led to them allowing open shots from the perimeter as the Lady Trojans made two 3-pointers as well.
The Lady Indians initially had to break some back court pressure Windthorst sent at their two lead ball handlers, but they quickly burned that coverage to get them out of it. Some made 3-pointers of their own and, their bread-and-butter, pushing the ball in transition allowed Nocona to take a narrow 13-11 lead heading into the second quarter.
The Lady Indians defense tightened up in the second quarter, fighting to not give up position in the post or allow Windthorst to have such an easy time passing the ball into the post.
When the Lady Trojans did, Nocona scrambled and some aggressive contests were getting called for fouls at a higher clip than the Lady Indians would have liked considering their limited depth on the bench.
Still, Nocona continued to roll on offense. Playmakers Megyn Meekins and Skyler Smith hurt the Lady Trojans hitting ahead outlet passes to Aubree Kleinhans who scored six in the quarter. When that was covered better, Windthorst failed to pick them up and either were able to dribble all the way to the basket while pushing the ball up themselves.
Nocona extended its lead all the way to 27-14 at one point, but Windthorst closed the quarter strong to cut the lead down to 28-20 heading into the second half. Besides the close to the quarter, Nocona’s biggest thing was the eight fouls it committed which could prove to be fatal with a team that usually plays only seven girls.
The Lady Indians continued to execute transition opportunities with roll players leaking out at just the right times. When that was covered, Meekins and Smith found driving lanes converted enough to keep its lead.
Windthorst got hot from 3-point land in the quarter, making four. The Lady Trjoans closed the quarter on an 8-2 run to make the game the closest it had been since the first quarter 40-35 as the game went to the final period.
That momentum the Lady Trojans were building was swept away in the opening half of the fourth quarter as Meekins and Nocona’s defense took over.
The Lady Indians dialed up the pressure on the ball handlers and picked their pockets for steals that led to layups. Meekins, who admitted the team did not have a great shooting game, made back-to-back deep 3-pointers.
Reagan Phipps, who was dealing with foul trouble in the first half, got in on the action by sinking an open 3-pointer as well to provide the only other points in the quarter that was not scored by Meekins.
With 2:44 left in the game, Windthorst still had not scored since the end of the third quarter and Nocona’s lead was up to 55-35. All tension was melted away by then as the Lady Indians coasted to another double-digit win, 57-40.

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