The Bowie Jackrabbits improved to 3-0 in district play with a win against Henrietta at home on Friday night.
The Jackrabbits won 58-48 against the Bearcats in a game where Bowie got out to a huge lead to start the game and tried to keep it up the rest of the game.
The Jackrabbits first two district games easily could have been losses. Their overtime win against Iowa Park was won by two points (49-47) and the win against Jacksboro earlier last week was by three points (38-35).
Bowie finally had a chance against a young and struggling Henrietta team to win without raising its fans blood pressure and took advantage right away.
The Jackrabbits started the game on a 21-1 run to start the game and ended the first quarter up 21-3.
Bowie was pushing the ball in transition off the many misses and turnovers it got on defense. Leading scorers Andrew Sandhoff and Tucker Jones finished around the rim and combined for 15 of the team’s points while Aiden Lawhorn and Boston Farris knocked in 3-pointers.
The thing was there were still three more quarters to play. Eventually, Henrietta would wake up and the Jackrabbits would cool off a bit. When that happened, Bowie would have to play good enough to keep the Bearcats at bay and the lead comfortable enough to not give Henrietta enough hope to try and mount a comeback.
The second quarter saw both teams switch defenses. The Jackrabbits wanted to give the Bearcats a different look to keep them off balance and threw in some press defense and zone.
Henrietta could only play better. The team also switched up its defense to some press defense, if only to give the Bearcats some urgency down big.
Neither change did much. Henrietta started to make some shots, especially several 3-pointers, which Bowie was not expecting on defense.
With fewer opportunities to run and with the lead still in place, the Jackrabbits offense did cool down a bit, but still scored 14 points. It was enough to be leading at halftime by nearly double the Bearcats first half total 35-18.
The second half was more of the same though Bowie’s offense was bit more muted and Henrietta was starting to win the 50/50 balls and the hustle points.
The Bearcats made three more 3-pointers in the third quarter and again outscored the Jackrabbits. At one point Henrietta cut the lead down to 10 points late in the third quarter.
Bowie ended the quarter well to extend the lead up a bit and led 46-33 heading into the fourth quarter.
Early in the final period, the Bearcats cut the lead down to single-digits 46-37, setting up a scenario where they could come all the way back unless the Jackrabbits continued to score.
Bowie woke up and extended the lead back up to a comfortable margin, up 15 points with 1:57 left in the game.
Henrietta had a last gasp, scoring nine points during the final few minutes, but the Jackrabbits made their free throws and avoided catastrophic end of game mistakes to win comfortably 58-48.

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