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.