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Boys Roundup
Saint Jo vs Gold-Burg
The Saint Jo Panthers won at Gold-Burg on Friday night to keep its pace for possibly second place in the district standings.
The Panthers won 41-37 against the Bears in a game that was up and down in terms of consistency from both teams.
Saint Jo won the first game between the teams way back in early January by a comfortable margin, but Gold-Burg was only one game back in the district standings since then and had the more experienced team.
Still, the Panthers showed what they can play like when everything is working as they got out to a 17-10 lead in the first quarter.
Then Saint Jo showed in the next quarter what has been its biggest weakness, its maddeningly inconsistency. The Bears held the Panthers to only three points in the second quarter.
This left the door open for Gold-Burg to come back as the team scored 13 points and took the lead 23-20 at halftime.
Saint Jo turned it around in the third quarter, getting a big boost with two made 3-pointers as it outscored the Bears 13-7.
The Panthers led 33-30 heading into the fourth quarter.
It was a close game throughout in the final period and Gold-Burg will kick itself for missing five free throws during quarter.
Saint Jo made just enough, going 4-6 from the free throw line, to hold off the Bears and win 41-37.
Nocona
The Nocona Indians wrapped up the first round of district play undefeated with a win against Archer City at home on Friday.
The Indians won 56-39 against the Wildcats.
Nocona came into the game confident with a 4-0 record compared with Archer City’s 1-3 record. Still, the Indians were down one starter thanks to a suspension from an on-court instance two games ago.
Nocona started the game playing like the better team, going up 14-8 after the first quarter and 31-15 at halftime. The Indians defense had limited the Wildcats to single-digit point totals in the first half.
The third quarter saw Nocona’s offense keep it up, but Archer City equaled its first half total to give it some life despite still trailing by double-digits heading into the fourth quarter.
The Indians were able to slow down the pace in the final period, limiting the Wildcats from being able to come back while still holding a comfortable lead.
Nocona won 56-39.
Forestburg
The Forestburg Longhorns bounced back from a bad loss by beat Midway on the road on Friday night.
The Longhorns won 55-43 against the Falcons to keep their second place in the district standings.
Forestburg was coming into the game after a disappointingly one-sided loss to first place Slidell which also saw some players get hurt and were out for Friday’s game.
Still, the Longhorns started the game well, going up 18-6 after the first quarter thanks to making three 3-pointers.
Forestburg kept scoring up in the second quarter relying on Jesse Wadsworth and Jesus Sanchez combining to score all 13 points. The Longhorns led 31-13 at halftime.
The second half saw Forestburg’s defensive intensity wane. The Falcons equaled the Longhorns 12 points in the third quarter before outscoring them 18-12 in the fourth quarter.
Still, it was not enough to crawl back into the game as Forestburg won 55-43.
Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley Bulldogs lost to first place Slidell on the road on Friday night.
The Greyhounds won 69-22 against the Bulldogs who are only the latest victim against undefeated Slidell.
Prairie Valley came into the game as a major underdog against a Greyhounds team that has outscored opponents 586 to 255 in district so far.
From the start it was clear it was not the night Cinderella was going to bless the Bulldogs with the chance to upset.
“We were on the bad side of a lopsided game from the get-go,” Coach Seth Stephens said. “We really struggled early on taking care of the ball against Slidell’s pressure defense and traps. That allowed them to build a large double digit lead by the end of the first quarter.”
Thankfully, Prairie Valley played a bit better in the second half, but not enough to make the game compelling in anyway.
Missing scores
The Bellevue team had a bye-game on Friday night.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Two former Bowie boy’s golf members played in the PGA University Championship on Nov. 12-13. (L-R) Cy Egenbacher and Imanol Walker are both in the Sam Houston University PGA Golf Managerment program. The team finished 16th overall. Egenbacher shot 168 during the two rounds and finished tied for 67th. Walker shot 180 and finished 84th. The tournament is a fun one for univesities that have PGA Golf Management programs, which is for individuals who want to work in the golf industry after graduation.
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers came up short at the regional final for the third straight season, one game away from state, on Saturday at the regional tournament in Midlothian.
The Lady Panthers beat Evant in straight sets 3-0 on Friday to reach the final game against Harrold which they lost 3-0.
Saint Jo knew before the season even started it would likely come to this big challenge, but it still had to go through all the steps to get there.
The Panthers reached the regional finals the previous two seasons, losing both times to eventual state champion Blum.
With district realignment meant a new region so a rematch with a Blum program that had graduated several key players from those teams would have to wait until state possibly.
Instead, a showdown against last year’s state runner-up Harrold was forecast in the regional final.
With the team having six seniors, with five of them having been on varsity since they were freshman, it was this year or bust for Saint Jo.
First, the Lady Panthers had to beat Evant. The Lady Elks leaned heavily on a big front court player. When she rotated to the back row, Evant showed almost no net resistance which meant Saint Jo hitters had free reign during that time.
The Lady Panthers won each set pretty easily, with the scores being 25-17, 25-17 and 25-19.
This set up the match with Harrold the team had been anticipating. The Lady Hornets had been at or near the top of the state standings since the beginning of the season.
Harrold had so much respect it had even played bigger local schools this season, beating Bowie in straight sets and Nocona in five sets during its pre-district schedule.
The two teams had met earlier in the season when the Lady Hornets attended Saint Jo’s hosted tournament. The two teams met in the tournament championship where Harrold won 2-1.
Still, with the tournament format being a best of three instead of five and the match after playing an exhausting schedule of five matches the previous two days, that result was not gospel, especially two months later.
The challenge is Harrold had multiple big hitters at the net, which is a big deal since most 1A teams are lucky to have one or two, which meant constant pressure on Saint Jo’s defense.
This also meant the Lady Panthers constantly had to find ways to attack the Lady Hornet defense as well or it would face strong hit after strong hit which was unsustainable for any team.
The first set saw the Lady Hornets get out to a good start before the Lady Panthers rallied back and took a little lead 8-7. Unfortunately, it started turn from there.
Harrold had some good runs from the service line that Saint Jo struggled to make much offense out of and led to the Lady Hornets pulling away. Harrold won 4-1 to get the lead to 11-9 and then extended it to 14-11, 17-13. Another 4-1 run and the Lady Hornets could smell the end of the first set coming.
The Lady Hornets won 25-17 to take the lead 1-0.
Saint Jo needed to bounce back, but unfortunately never got anything going in set two.
Harrold led 4-1 and then 8-2. The Lady Panthers would have needed a huge run at some point from the service line to get back into the set, but it never came as the Lady Hornets lead grew more and more.
Harrold took set two 25-13 to go up 2-0 and had all of the momentum.
Saint Jo had its back against the wall, knowing the only option was to hope for a comeback that would lead to a fifth set, but to get there it needed to win set three.
The Lady Panthers initially started on the right foot. After falling being 4-1 to start the previous two sets, it was Saint Jo that started well up 4-1. Unfortunately, the Lady Hornets came roaring back, going on an 8-2 run as it led 9-6, then 12-8 and 15-10.
It looked like it was heading towards a similar place as set one with Harrold slowly running away with the set before the Lady Panthers made one last gasp.
Saint Jo eventually cut the lead down to one point, trailing 20-19 as the set entered the final stretch and the Lady Panthers had their best momentum of the match.
Unfortunately, it was Harrold that was able to close the set out with momentum, earning the final five points to win 25-19 and the match 3-0.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from Friday’s match, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870620&T=1
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