Saint Jo vs Gold-Burg
The Saint Jo Panthers picked up a district win at home on Friday against Gold-Burg.
The Panthers won 52-22 against the Bears, but most of the damage came in the second half.
Saint Jo was playing its second game in less than 24 hours after winning an important game at Midway the previous night in overtime 67-58 that could help move the team up in the district playoff seeding.
After that game, playing a Gold-Burg team it had already beaten seemed to be a piece of cake.
The Bears came in rested after a bye game that week and with nothing to lose but to play hard and fast. Their aggressive pressing and up tempo pace made for a fun first half of up and down play, but it was a bit sloppy with both teams turning the ball over a lot.
Saint Jo led at halftime, but it was still a game with Gold-Burg trailing single-digits 24-15 and the Panthers were not pleased.
Saint Jo came out in the second half with renewed intensity and started turning up the pressure and forcing turnovers that directly led to easy points. Gold-Burg was flustered and never recovered as the Bears scored only seven points in the second half.
The Panthers ran away with the game 52-22.
For Saint Jo, backcourt duo Kile Thurman and Collin Thomas each scored 13 points to lead the team while Brice Durham was right behind him scoring 12 points.
For Gold-Burg, Isaac Renteria led the team with six points and Jayon Grace was second with five points.

Nocona
The Nocona Indians picked up a big win on the road Friday night at Archer City.
The Indians won a tough physical game 48-42 against the Wildcats.
Both teams came into the game with 3-1 district records, each only losing to Seymour. The winner would cap the first round of district in sole position of second place.
The first half was competitive as Archer City gained control in the first quarter before Nocona regained that control by one point 30-29 heading into halftime.
The Indians came out and had a great third quarter, limiting the Wildcats to only six points while they continued to score well. The one point lead was now 10 as Nocona led 45-35 heading into the fourth quarter.
The pace slowed significantly so Archer City would have a tougher time coming back. The Wildcats only barely scored more than they did in the third quarter.
What made it closer than it probably should have was Nocona only scored three points in the last eight minutes.
Still, the defense held on to secure the win 48-42 and keep the Indians in second place in the district.
Brady McCasland led the team with 14 points and four assists.
Conley Kleinhans joined him in double-figures with 10 points while grabbing a team high eight rebound and five steals. Luke Fuller added eight points and three steals.

Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley Bulldogs lost a tough one against district favorites Slidell at home on Friday.
The Greyhounds won 62-36 against the young Bulldogs.
Prairie Valley was able to keep Slidell contained in the first quarter and trailed only by three points 12-9.
Unfortunately, the Greyhounds took off in the second quarter scoring 23 points and the Bulldogs could never catch back up.
Tyler Winkler led Prairie Valley with 15 points while Tyson Easterling was second with nine points scored.

Forestburg
The Forestburg Longhorns lost a tough game at home on Friday night against Midway.
The Falcons won 68-32 against the young Longhorn team.
Both teams were coming off playing a game the previous night due to games being rescheduled, but it did not slow down Midway at all. The Falcons scored 20 or more points in both quarters of the first half while Forestburg was never really able to get much going offensively.
Jesse Wadsworth led the team with eight points while Jesus Sanchez was right behind him with seven points. Kyler Willett collected 10 rebounds and Nathan Payne had three blocks to lead the team.

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