SPORTS
Indians lose to Tolar in area round
The ride ended earlier than expected for the Nocona Indians as they lost in the area round to Tolar on Thursday night.
The Rattlers won 57-51 against the Indians in a physical game that came down to end-of-game execution.
Nocona came into the game as favorites. The Indians were 24-11, had gone undefeated in district play, were ranked ninth in the state in 2A in the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches poll and 21st on Max Preps rankings.
Tolar was 16-14, had finished third in its district and was ranked 23rd in the TABC poll and 79th on Max Preps. However, the Rattlers had one major thing on their side.
Tolar’s starting lineup featured players as tall as 6’6” and all but one player who got major minutes were at least six feet.
Nocona’s major achilles heel has been its lack of height, with Charlie Fuller being the only player on the roster who measures at least six feet, listed at 6’1.” That combined with the team’s trouble at grabbing defensive rebounds at times, much to Coach Brody Wilson’s chagrin, and it was a major matchup issue.
The Indians seemed to carve up Tolar’s zone defense early on, passing inside only to kick it back to the perimeter for open shots or for angles to drive.
Brady McCasland made two 3-pointers and scored 10 of the team’s 14 points in the first quarter.
Nocona tried to limit catches in the paint against the Rattler’s massive post player, but had to give up some room on the outside. Even after forcing a miss, trying to gather a rebound against opponents who had major height and size advantages was tough.
The teams were tied at 14-14 after the first quarter.
The Indians had their best stretch of the game in the second quarter. Nocona was pestering Tolar on defense and limited the Rattlers to only seven points.
On offense, the Indians had three players make one 3-pointer each while McCasland was able to earn some free throws driving into the lane.
Nocona led 27-21 at halftime.
The Indians started out the second half continuing to pick apart the Rattlers, scoring twice in the first minute to go up 32-21.
Tolar would then turn things around, finding success shooting off the dribble in the mid-range area while also making three 3-pointers in the quarter to get ahead.
The Rattlers came all the way back to take the lead 34-32 as Nocona had a scoring drought for most the quarter.
The Indians picked it back up offensively in the final two minutes, but trailed Tolar 42-39 heading into the fourth quarter.
It was back and forth the first four minutes of the final period. Karson Kleinhans 3-pointer put Nocona up 48-47.
The Rattlers then had back-to-back possessions where they scored right after an offensive rebound.
McCasland then earned free throws and made one of two to cut the lead to 51-49 with 2:37 left.
After running some clock, Tolar scored on a close post shot to go up 53-49 with 1:12 left in the game.
A deep 3-pointer from Nocona missed everything for an air ball, but Conley Kleinhans caught it underneath the basket and scored to cut the deficit back to one basket 53-51 with 29 seconds left.
The Indians needed to foul three times to get into the bonus and send the Rattlers to the free throw line with 13 seconds left.
The player made both free throws to make it a two basket game 55-51.
Nocona missed and Tolar scored in celebration with a dunk at the buzzer to make the final score 57-51.
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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