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Catching up with Kleinhans

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2021 Nocona graduate Averee Kleinhans transfered to Texas Women’s University back on April 20. (Courtesy photo)

One of Nocona’s most accomplished athletes is excited to be returning home to Texas for college as she transfers to Texas Women’s University.
Kleinhans spent her first two years in college playing basketball at the University of Northern Colorado, a mid major division I school that is 719 miles from Nocona.
That distance was a major factor in making the choice to enter the transfer portal at the end of the college basketball season.
Kleinhans was originally signed to go to West Texas A&M, but when the coach who recruited her, Kristen Mattio, was hired at Northern Colorado Kleinhans decided to follow her despite knowing she would have to go several states farther north.
Her first year was spent glued to the bench for the first time in her life as she redshirted her freshman year to keep a season of eligibility. For someone who never missed any long chunk of playing time in high school with any major injury, it was the longest Kleinhans had spent waiting and watching.
“That was probably the toughest year mentally for me” Kleinhans said. “Especially because I wasn’t playing. I was practicing with them, but I couldn’t get that opportunity to play. I talked to the coaches about redshirting, but they didn’t want to rule me out in case someone got hurt, but thankfully no one did and I was able to keep my year of eligibility.”
It paid off this past season when she and several young players who had bonded off the court took major roles on the team despite their inexperience. Predictably the team had an up and down season with so many underclassmen contributing.
They went 8-5 in non-conference games, but only 5-13 in conference. In the Big Sky tournament the team won against Weber State before ending its season with a loss to Northern Arizona.
Kleinhans started all but one of the 31 games she played. Despite not handling the ball as much as she was used to, she still finished third on the team averaging 8.5 points, was second in rebounds averaging 4.7 and led the team with 3.2 assists. At the end of the season she was named to the Big Sky All-Academic Team.
Still, despite bonding with her teammates and thinking these were the girls she was going “to have in her wedding party one day,” the home sickness never went away.
“Two years up there I was just starting to get away from the home sickness, but we would have games and a lot of my teammates were Colorado natives so they would have their family come and it was just so hard for me to watch knowing, if I was somewhere in Texas, I’d have my whole fan base,” Kleinhans said.
She didn’t want to transfer since she was so close with her teammates, but knew the problem was not going away and she would regret it if she did it sometime in the future with less years left to play.
When looking to transfer, one option was already on her mind as she had been secretly keeping up with another program for several years.
Texas Women’s University had been her second choice during her recruitment, but she had never made an official visit.
With the Lady Pioneers not just being in Texas but close to home and the program coming off back-to-back 20 win seasons, the fit seemed perfect when they showed interest in her. She made it official on April 20.
“Averee knows how to win,” Coach Beth Jillson said. “She has a high basketball IQ, which allows her to have incredible vision on the court. Averee passes the ball at a high level, can shoot the three and will be an immediate threat on offense. We are excited to welcome her to the Pioneer family.”
The transfer means Kleinhans will be going from division I competition to division II, but besides teams lacking huge height in the post she does not think it will be much of a dip in competition.
“Some (Lone Star) conference teams probably could play tough with mid major division I schools like I was playing,” Kleinhans said. “I’m not counting anyone out. I was supposed to go division II, I just got that opportunity to go division I. So it’ll still be tough for sure. Girls probably won’t be as tall as like a Kansas State or Montana State or something like that, but will still be very competitive.”

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

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Nocona boys beat Saint Jo 55-48

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Saint Jo’s Barrett Johnson and Nocona’s Landon Fatheree, both of their team's leading scorers, compete for a rebound.

The Nocona Indians were able to beat Saint Jo at home on Thursday night in a tight contest.
The Indians won 55-48 against the Panthers in a game where both teams played hard, but made plenty of early season mistakes.
Nocona came into the game following a low-scoring win against Bells earlier in the week 35-30. For a young Indians team that only has a few players with varsity experience this year, every early season win builds confidence.
For Saint Jo, the Panthers were still without several returning starters since football is still going on. Despite that, new Coach Jacob Nocktonick is trying to build what he can with his group of basketball first players that include several key players even when the football team is integrated.
Despite Saint Jo being the smaller school, overall it had the height advantage in the front line since Nocona features only one player, Kasch Johnson, who is built like a post player. That is nothing new for the Indians, who featured a short team the previous year as Coach Brody Wilson emphasizes full-court pressure on defense and pushing the ball in transition in his system that makes up for a lack of height and size.
Initially Nocona’s pace and energy, grabbing several offensive rebounds, got it the lead 9-3. Eventually, the Panthers adjusted and trailed only 12-11 after the first quarter.
Saint Jo got the lead early in the second quarter. Post Trent Gaston took advantage of his size advantage, especially when the Indians had Johnson out, and led 17-12. Both teams had trouble scoring in a rough second quarter as open perimeter shots just were not going in and shots at the rim were tough to convert.
The Panthers led 23-20 heading into halftime.
Both teams had better offensive success pushing the ball when it could in the second half.
Saint Jo broke Nocona’s press and punished the Indians with quick baskets. Nocona ran whenever it could and seemed to put up an array of perimeter shots and drives, getting offensive rebounds it seemed at will to keep the pressure up and infuriate the Panthers coach.
The Indians got a big push from Landon Fatheree in the second half. After scoring eight points in the first half to lead the team, he scored 10 of his team’s 14 points in the third quarter.
Nocona got the lead back, but only led 34-33 heading into the final period.
The Indians had a comfortable lead up 44-36 when Saint Jo’s Gaston fouled out with 4:56 left in the game. Still, the Panthers did not give up and a minute later had whittled Nocona’s lead down to one basket 44-41 with 3:45.
The game stayed a one-possession game for the next two minutes as Saint Jo had several chances to tie or take the lead not go through.
Nocona made its free throws down the stretch to win with a little more comfort, with the final score being 55-48.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News. To see more pictures, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870682&T=1

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Nocona’s Meekins signs to Lubbock Christian

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Nocona senior Meg Meekins signed her official letter of intent to play college basketball at Lubbock Christian University on Wednesday. Meekins, the daughter of Brandi and Lance, is a four-year starter on the volleyball and basketball court. She has earned several accolades like being named to the All State Teams for TGCA, TABC, Associated Press and was selected to the All Tournament Team at the UIL State Basketball Tournament in San Antonio last year.“The coaching staff and the community of the LCU program and just knowing you have a staff that coaches you, but also looks over you just like Coach (Kyle) Spitzer did here was a huge part in the recruiting process,” Meekins said. She plans to pursue a degree in either physical or occupational therapy.

For more pictures, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870680&T=1

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Bowie girls survive Bellevue 44-40

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Bowie freshman Laney Seguria made this corner 3-pointer to tie the game up at 40-40 with a minute left in the game.

The Bowie Lady Rabbits got more than they bargained for when they traveled to Bellevue on Tuesday night.
The Lady Rabbits escaped with the win 44-40, taking the lead with less than a minute to go after trailing whole game.
Bowie came into the game confident. The larger 3A school was supposed to play Windthorst, but had to reschedule because the Lady Trojans volleyball team was playing in the state tournament.
Finding a last minute replacement, the Lady Rabbits thought they would have an easy game playing the 1A program down the road. Little did they know.
Bellevue had a couple of players out with injury to limit its depth a bit and a new coach in Celsey Hoffman, but the Lady Eagles were coming off of nearly beating a Nocona team the previous week. While the Lady Indians were missing four starters who were still in volleyball, it still showed this was not a 1A team to take lightly.
Bellevue came out fast showing tough defensive pressure despite giving up size at nearly every position. Within a few minutes the Lady Eagles had used that pressure to force turnovers and convert those steals into transition opportunities.
Also, the energy showed in other areas as Bellevue seemed to grab every loose ball and fought for offensive rebounds despite lacking in height compared to Bowie.
After a little more than four minutes into the game the Lady Eagles led 15-0. The Lady Rabbits had barely been able to set up their offense or attempt a shot against the pressure.
Bowie Coach Matthew Miller had to reset his shell-shocked team during multiple timeouts. The young ballhandlers was reminded how the team was going to break the press defense so it could set up its offense.
Bellevue led 19-4 after the first quarter, led by Mary Grace Broussard and Brittany Gill who each scored six points.
The Lady Rabbits settled down and made some good progress in the second quarter. Their defense switched between man-to-man and 1-3-1 to keep the Lady Eagles off balance. With them taking care of the ball better, there were less chances for Bellevue in transition and the Lady Eagles offense struggled to consistently find ways to score against Bowie’s length.
The Lady Rabbits offense found some success as well. Five different players made at least one basket and the team made two 3-pointers.
While the game was physical from the start, now that Bowie knew what type of game it was in the team responded back. It was not pretty and only enough fouls were called to make the game watchable, but individual foul trouble affected Bellevue harder than the Lady Rabbits in the second quarter.
The Lady Eagles still led heading into halftime, but Bowie had gotten it down to single digits trailing 25-19.
The third quarter was more even between the two teams as both had trouble consistently scoring baskets. Bellevue made three baskets and a couple of free throws to keep ahead.
The Lady Rabbits got a big lift from Lanie Moore, who knocked in all three of her 3-pointers in the quarter, scoring nine of the team’s 12 points.
Bowie still trailed, but had cut the lead down to one point earlier in the quarter and one basket 34-31 heading into the fourth quarter.
Bellevue grew the lead to 38-32 early in the final period. The Lady Rabbits struggled to get anything going offensively and trailed 40-34 midway through the quarter.
Bowie’s Kendall Fallis made a 3-pointer in transition to cut the lead to one basket 40-37.
The score stayed there for the next several minutes even as the Lady Eagles had two starters, Karis Denson and Mattie Broussard, foul out of the game.
With a little more than a minute left, the Lady Rabbits drew up and out of bounds play that got Laney Segura an open shot in the corner. Despite not having made a basket all game, she sunk the 3-pointer to tie the game at 40-40 with a minute still to play.
Bowie had been in a pressure defense for the second half of the fourth quarter to prevent Bellevue from passively running clock. Still in the defense, the team next stole the in-bounds pass and Railey Martin made the undefended layup to give the Lady Rabbits their first lead of the game 42-40 with 48 seconds left.
The Lady Eagles could not tie the score on their next offensive possession. Bowie would made two more free throws to make the final 44-40.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News. For more pictures from the game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870678&T=1

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