SPORTS
Basketball Roundup
Nocona
Both Nocona teams won senior night on Friday against tough Windthorst teams.
The Lady Indians dominated with a 71-39 win to wrap up their sixth straight district title. The Indians won 65-50 to stay undefeated and in first place in the district.
The Nocona girls came into the game confident. The sixth ranked team in the state in 2A according to the latest Texas Association of Basketball Coaches poll had outscored district opponents 590-187. The first game the Lady Indians beat the Lady Trojans 51-27.
Still, Windthorst was the second seeded team in the district with its only loss coming against Nocona. If anyone was going to challenge the Lady Indians it would be the Lady Trojans.
Nocona made sure there were no thoughts about upsets.
The Lady Indians came out firing, scoring 24 and 23 points in the first two quarters. Nocona’s press defense was creating transition scoring opportunities that allowed the team to score quickly while limiting Windthorst’s offense.
The Lady Indians led 47-16 at halftime.
Naturally there was a drag in the second half with Nocona up 30 or more points.
The Lady Trojans had their best offensive stretch in the third quarter, keeping up with the Lady Indians and only getting outscored 18-15.
Nocona then slowed the pace down to limit Windthorst’s opportunities in the fourth quarter. Despite the Lady Trojans actually outscoring the Lady Indians for the only stretch in the game, it was only by two points as neither team scored in double-figures.
Nocona won 71-39.
The Nocona boy’s were confident heading into the game with an undefeated district record, but had barely survived second place Seymour not once, but twice.
Still, the Indians had their full team again as the suspensions from the on-court altercation against Olney had been served.
Windthorst had a chance to possibly jump to second place ahead of Seymour if the Trojans could win.
Despite Nocona being ranked the 12th best team in the state in 2A in the same poll, the Indians margin of victory had not quite been as dominant as the girls team.
Still, the Indians came out in the first half and dominated.
Nocona outscored Windthorst 18-8 in the first quarter and 20-9 in the second quarter as the Indians were in control, up 38-17 at halftime.
The Trojans offense woke up in the third quarter and nearly doubled their first half total with 15 points. Thankfully, Nocona’s offense was still scoring at a scorching pace with 19 points as it led 57-32 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Indians did not have a good end to the game as Windthorst’s offense upped the antee in the final period. Nocona’s offense, no longer concerned with scoring, was limited to eight points while the Trojans scored a game high 18 points.
Still, the Indians won by a comfortable margin 65-50.
Gold-Burg vs Prairie Valley boys
The Gold-Burg Bears were able to pull ahead in the second half against Prairie Valley on Friday night.
The Bears won 50-39 in a game that was much closer than that final score for the first three quarters.
Gold-Burg came into the game hoping it could hold on to its fourth place in the district standings with a 3-5 record. Prairie Valley had a 2-7 record, but knew it could compete and beat almost any team in the district despite its largely youthful team.
It was a close first quarter as the Bears led only 13-12. The Bulldogs did a good job of playing defense in the second quarter, limiting Gold-Burg to only six points while not slowing down their offense at all.
Prairie Valley outscored the Bears 14-6 and led 26-19 at halftime.
Gold-Burg bounced back and the teams played a competitive third quarter. The Bears outscored the Bulldogs 12-9 as Prairie Valley’s lead was cut to 35-31 heading into the fourth quarter.
Gold-Burg’s defense then came alive, with its press creating costly turnovers it could convert into quick points in transition. The Bulldogs had 13 turnovers in the final period while also scoring only four points.
The Bears ran away with the game, scoring 19 points in the final period as they won with the double-digit margin 50-39.
Missing scores
Coaches from both Bellevue basketball teams did not return emails with information about Friday’s game against Midway.
The Gold-Burg Lady Bears basketball team had to cancel its season for having too few players.
Prairie Valley was originally scheduled to play them on Friday, but did not.
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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