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.