SPORTS
Bellevue comes back to beat Forestburg
The Bellevue Eagles were able to complete a thrilling comeback win in their regular season finale against Forestburg on Tuesday night.
The Eagles won 54-50, coming back from double-digits to take the lead in the final minute against the Longhorns.
Coming into the game, Bellevue was on a three-game win streak to get the team back into the playoff conversation. A win would mean the Eagles would battle Saint Jo for the third seed in a play-in game and a playoff appearance was guaranteed. A loss would mean a play-in game against Gold-Burg for the fourth and final playoff seed.
Forestburg had the second seed in the district standings wrapped up, but the team was coming off a disappointing loss to Prairie Valley at the buzzer and wanted a win to get momentum up going into the playoffs.
The Longhorns got out on top early on. Midway through the first quarter, Forestburg led by double-digits 13-2 and was using its size advantage with Kyler Willett in the post while Jesus Sanchez was scoring in-between. The Longhorns led 22-10.
The second quarter saw Forestburg’s Sanchez sit early on with two fouls. Bellevue’s defense tightened up on allowing passes into the post and the Longhorns tough mid-range shots just seemed to clang out.
The Eagles’ offense was still struggling to get anything going against Forestburg’s 2-3 zone defense.
Right before halftime, Bellevue busted out a full-court press defense that was a precursor for things to come though it didn’t help the Eagles before halftime.
The Longhorns led 32-19 heading into the second half.
The press from Bellevue just seemed to grow more and more ferocious as time went along for the Eagles.
It energized them in every facet of the game, chasing offensive rebounds, winning lose balls, playing more physical.
The offense Forestburg was executing so effortlessly in the first quarter was now gone as the team seemed to just be trying to hang on.
Just in one quarter, Bellevue had come all the way back and got within one point 36-35.
The Longhorns closed the quarter with two made baskets to get a little breathing room, but Bellevue had made it a game now trailing only 40-35 heading into the fourth quarter.
It was back and forth as Forestburg tried to hold onto its lead as the Eagles were nipping at the Longhorns heels while the team was trying to stall for time.
With 1:54 left in the game, Bellevue’s Kason Roper made both of his free throws to cut Forestburg’s lead back to one basket 48-46.
After both teams exchanged quick turnovers, the Longhorns Jesse Wadsworth scored before the Eagles Jayson Gill answered quickly to make it 50-48 with a minute left to play.
After 31 seconds ran off the clock, Bellevue forced a turnover and Roper scored quickly in transition while also getting fouled. He made the clutch free throw shot to give the Eagles their first lead of the game 51-50 with 23 seconds left.
Forestburg turned the ball over, but Bellevue immediately gave the ball back as the player tried to pass the ball ahead and it went out of bounds underneath Bellevue’s basket with nine seconds left.
The Longhorns tried a full-court pass that went out of bounds to give the ball right back.
The Eagles were then sent to the free throw line and Roper made two more clutch free throws to put Bellevue ahead 53-50 with six seconds left.
Forestburg again tried to quickly pass it up the court ahead of the press, but an errant pass was too far upcourt and went out of bounds back to the Eagles.
Bellevue’s River Trail made one more free throw to clinch the game in the final seconds to give the Eagles a 54-50 win.
To read the full story, 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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