The Bowie basketball teams played and won at Jacksboro on Friday night to pick up important wins in district play.
The Lady Rabbits won 47-24 while the Jackrabbits battled for a close 42-36 win.
The Bowie girl’s team wanted to keep its place at second in the district and while it was favored against Jacksboro, the Lady Tigers did have one big advantage.
Jacksboro’s tall post player Erin Jonas in the past has been called one of the more skilled players in the district by Bowie Coach Matthew Miller. One of the areas this Lady Rabbits team lacks the most is height.
Still, Bowie has been able to overcome that shortcoming all season in certain matchups by playing fast and putting pressure on opposing ball handlers on defense so entry passes into the post are more difficult.
It was a fast paced first quarter with the Lady Rabbits scoring at will as Ziba Robbins scored 13 of the team’s 18 points in the quarter. Jacksboro had answers offensively with four different players making one basket, but Bowie still led 18-11 after the first quarter.
The Lady Rabbits grew a bit more diverse on offense as Robbins cooled down, but they still scored at a good pace in the second quarter putting up 14 points.
More importantly, Bowie shut down the Lady Tigers holding them to four points. The Lady Rabbits led 32-15 going into halftime.
Bowie’s offense slowed down in the second half, scoring 10 points in the third quarter and only five in the fourth quarter. This was alright because the Lady Rabbits continued to play lights out defense, holding Jacksboro to nine total points in the second half.
Bowie easily won 47-24.
Robbins led the team with 21 points and five steals. Maddie Mandela was second with 14 points while grabbing a team high 10 rebounds along with three assists. Kayleigh Crow added six points and five rebounds from the post area.
The Jackrabbits were in a different boat coming into the game. They had lost earlier in the week against an Iowa Park team it had beaten in the first round and had one of Bowie’s worst shooting performances of the season. Surely a blowout win against a Tigers’ team that was 1-6 in district would get the team back on track.
Instead it was a tough game from start to until the close finish.
The first half saw the Tigers come out in a matchup zone defense that made movement difficult. Besides making four 3-pointers, including 11 points from A.J. Whatley, the Jackrabbits struggled make many baskets in the first half.
Jacksboro led 25-18 at halftime and things were not looking much better from the previous game.
Bowie turned things up in the second half on both sides of the ball which led to more free throw attempts and points near the basket thanks to turnovers.
The Tigers scored only 11 points in the second half which allowed the Jackrabbits to take the lead in the end.
Bowie won 42-36.
Whatley led the team with 15 points while Brody Armstrong was second with 12 points.
The win keeps the Jackrabbits in the playoff hunt as several teams have roundabout losses to each other.

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