SPORTS
Saint Jo beats Gold-Burg 60-33
The Saint Jo Panthers won their district home opener against Gold-Burg on Tuesday night.
The Panthers won 60-33 in a game that was expected to be closer or at least have a different outcome.
Saint Jo’s young team has struggled during the non-district part of its schedule as wins have come few and far between.
One of the many losses came against this same Bears’ team earlier this season at the Panthers-hosted tournament. Gold-Burg won that game by double-digits.
With a Bears team filled with mostly upper classmen and many of the same athletes that upset Saint Jo in football during the fall season, there was a feeling this might just be Gold-Burg’s year against the Panthers.
That game was a month ago and Saint Jo’s young team was missing some starters due to injury. A fully healthy Panther team and a month of growth made Tuesday night’s game go much differently than the first match-up.
Saint Jo came out and scored the first 11 points of the game halfway through the first quarter. The Panthers handled the Bear’s full-court press and aggressive trapping in the half court and made them pay when they got open shots.
On the other side, Saint Jo’s long defenders meant almost every shot Gold-Burg threw up was contested. Maybe that was the reason the Bears just could not seem to make a basket from anywhere.
Gold-Burg rallied late in the first quarter to cut the lead down to 19-9 heading into the second, but that would be as close as the score would be.
The Bears were limited to only five points in the second period. Even after misses, Saint Jo did a good job of rebounding and limiting Gold-Burg to just one shot on most of its offensive possessions.
While the Panthers offense continued to score at a good pace, it was not all sun shine and rainbows on their end. The constant pressure from the Bears started to lead to more turnovers as the game wore on, though not the kind that fueled points for Gold-Burg.
Saint Jo led 33-14 at halftime.
The third quarter got a little feisty with some technical fouls being given out to the Bears for a foul away from the ball and then for arguing with the referees.
Thankfully the teams cooled off as the game went on. The Gold-Burg player later helped the player he fouled up off the floor on another play so he would not get stepped on during play.
It did nothing to help Gold-Burg start to make shots as it scored another five points in the third quarter. It also was Saint Jo’s lowest total of the game scoring 10 points as it was just an ugly quarter overall. The Panthers lead continued to grow though as they led 43-19 heading into the final period.
With the lead out of reach, both teams played a bit more loosely which led to more scoring from both teams than any other quarter. Gold-Burg had five different players make one basket as the team equaled the total first half points (14) it scored in the fourth quarter.
It still was not more than Saint Jo which finished hot by scoring 17 points as the Panthers won 60-33.
To read the full story and see more pictures from the game, pick up a copy of the weekend 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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