SPORTS
Girls Basketball Roundup
Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians had one of their toughest games of the season on Tuesday driving all the way to Dodd City.
The Lady Indians won a slog of a game 36-26 against the Lady Hornets in a game they knew would be a big test despite playing a smaller school.
Nocona came into the game with a lot of confidence. The Lady Indians were coming off winning their second tournament of the season, are still undefeated and recently moved to the top ranking in the state in the 2A Texas Association of Basketball Coaches poll.
Dodd City is a program that has ended every several area 1A teams playoff runs in several sports, with its girl’s basketball team being no exception. This year’s Lady Hornets are ranked ninth in the state in 1A.
Still, Nocona was expecting a challenge, but maybe not too much of one.
The Lady Indians have played bigger schools this season already and handled them fine. Also, when the two teams met last year and both were similarly ranked, Nocona had won by 22 points.
Still, Dodd City was ready for the Lady Indians and it was a fight until the end.
The usually high-powered offense that pushes the ball in transition was ground to a halt for most of the game.
Nocona failed to break single-digits for the first three quarters and trailed for most of the game. What kept the Lady Indians in the game was their defense as they kept the game within one basket for most of the game.
Coach Kyle Spitzer said Dodd City slowed the pace way down and did a good job of snuffing out Nocona’s early offense strikes.
The Lady Indians headed into the fourth quarter in the unusual position of being behind 26-23.
Then Nocona turned it on in the final period.
The Lady Indians got 3-pointers from Skyler Smith, Reagan Phipps and Avery Crutsinger.
Combined with a regular field goal from Smith and Meg Meekins making both of her free throw attempts, and Nocona’s 13 points nearly equaled its first half total.
What made the difference was the Lady Indians’ defense, pitching a rare shutout in the fourth quarter. After such a close game of playing catchup, Nocona wound up winning by double-digits 36-26.
Smith led the Lady Indians with 15 points. Meekins was second with nine points while Crutsinger grabbed a team high eight rebounds to go with six points.
Forestburg vs Prairie Valley
The Forestburg Lady Horns won their opening district game on Tuesday at home against Prairie Valley.
The young Lady Horns won 66-34 against the thin Lady Bulldogs team playing with only five players.
Forestburg knows how that feels after playing with a tiny bench last year, but a big freshman group has the team numbers to a healthy one, which means the Lady Horns are free to employ a physical full-court press.
While Prairie Valley did an okay job of avoiding disaster while breaking the press, the 3-pointers were not falling freely enough to keep up with a Forestburg offense that was hot from the get go.
The Lady Horns led 19-8 after the first quarter and 33-18.
A similar pace kept up the rest of the game as Forestburg’s lead grew bigger and bigger against a tiring Lady Bulldog team.
The Lady Horns won 66-34.
Lili Cisneros led Forestburg with 20 points. Brenna Briles had a triple double finishing with 16 points while grabbing a team high 14 rebounds and dishing a team leading 10 assists. Madisen Deason grabbed 12 rebounds.
For Prairie Valley, Makaylee Gomez had a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds to go with team leading two blocks and two steals. Linzie Priddy scored a game high 13 points with two 3-pointers.
Missing scores
The Bowie girls did not play a game earlier this week. The Gold-Burg coach did not give results.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
SPORTS
Nocona’s Meekins signs to Lubbock Christian
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
SPORTS
Bowie girls survive Bellevue 44-40
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
SPORTS
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