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Jackrabbits lose to Holliday 58-43
The Bowie Jackrabbits closed the first round of district play with a loss against Holliday on Friday night.
The Eagles won 58-43 against the Jackrabbits as Bowie struggled to play against the much bigger and longer Holliday team.
The Jackrabbits came into the game believing they had what it took to pull an upset against the only undefeated team in district. Bowie the previous week had beaten a more athletic and arguably talented Vernon team.
Three of the team’s four district wins had been won by one basket or less so the team was not scared of close games.
While the Jackrabbits had faced teams with freak athletes who were good players the previous two games against City View and Vernon, Holliday had the best one in the Wichita Falls area.
Keitenn Bristow is listed at 6 feet and 8 inches tall. He is skinny, but is not a weak, awkward stick as he plays more like a wing and guard despite his height. His athleticism and skill level are that of a Division I recruit and he came into the game averaging 26 points while shooting very efficient 60% from the field and 48% from 3-point range while grabbing nine rebounds.
Both teams played a 2-3 zone defense, but played it very different. The Jackrabbits were trying to clog the paint, worried about Holliday’s height advantage not just from Bristow, but else ware on the team’s front line as well and not too scared of the team’s perimeter shooting outside of Bristow.
The Eagles 2-3 defense was much more aggressive towards the perimeter, not trying to give Bowie too much room to shoot open 3-pointers which is the team’s leading scorer Andrew Sandhoff’s specialty.
Holliday defenders were aggressive coming out and with Bristow in the middle near the rim, it made trying to attack the rim an intimidating possibility.
Bowie decided to attack in the open space near the free throw line with Brady Lawhorn trying to draw defenders in before he used his vision to pass the ball to an open teammate.
What the Jackrabbits found was the open play was a pass to a player cutting to the basket by the baseline. Normally it would be a no-brainer proposition, but even with Bristow recovering late, his length and athleticism meant he could still block or affect the shot.
Still, Tucker Jones and later Braden Rhyne were able to score three baskets this way in the first quarter to keep the game close. With the defense still bothering Holliday a little bit, the Eagles led only 10-6 after the first quarter.
Bowie found other ways to score in the second quarter. The team found enough space to knock in two 3-pointers despite being hesitant to continue to attack the paint, especially from guards driving into the lane.
Lawhorn scored on a couple of floaters and Rhyne scored once more right over Bristow.
Unfortunately, Holliday was starting to figure out the Jackrabbits zone defense. From the beginning, the Eagles were having great success crashing the offensive glass with not just Bristow, but their whole front line.
The Eagles had some sequences where they just carved up Bowie’s defense with well-placed passes. With the team always more willing to give extra help on Bristow on or off the ball, there were some open shots Holliday made the Jackrabbits pay for.
The Eagles led 27-18 heading into halftime.
Bowie came out in the third quarter trying to claw its way back in. The offense continued what it was doing in the second quarter, finding a couple of 3-pointers while learning not to challenge Bristow at the rim anymore as the blocks started to add up.
The Jackrabbits cut it to five points midway through the quarter down 32-27 and hoped they could close the distance even more. Unfortunately, Holliday had an answer as the team went on a 9-2 run to end the third quarter.
The Eagles led by double-digits 41-29 heading into the fourth quarter.
It looked like early on Holliday was going to slow down the pace by holding the ball a little bit, so Bowie made sure to not let the Eagles do that.
The Jackrabbits changed to a man-to-man defense with switching principals and used pretty aggressive pressure to make sure Holliday could not just dribble near half court freely.
Unfortunately, this opened up more holes in Bowie’s defense than had been all game. The Jackrabbits had to foul on shots near the rim and the Eagles made 8-9 free throws and scored 17 points in the quarter as they pulled away.
Even with Bowie’s offense having its best run of the game, with six different players making at least one basket and the team making two 3-pointers, it was not enough to keep pace or try and come back.
Holliday won 58-43.
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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