SPORTS
Lady Indians beat Windthorst 57-40
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.
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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