SPORTS
Longhorns beat Panthers 53-43
The Forestburg Longhorns took control of second place in district with a win at Saint Jo on Friday night.
The Longhorns 53-43 in a game that was a lot closer than it seemed like it was going to be at the start of the game.
Forestburg came into the game with a one game advantage on the Panthers in the district standings. The Longhorns won the first game between the teams 56-40, which was their first win against Saint Jo since 2018.
The Panthers were missing a starter in that first game and with the home crowd on their side, they were hoping the second game would be different.
Early on it was not much different from the first game.
Forestburg was passing through Saint Jo’s zone defense and getting easy looks for its big post player Kyler Willett and looks in the mid-post for scorer Jesus Sanchez. They combined to score all of the team’s points in the quarter.
With the Longhorns up 8-0 midway through the first quarter, Saint Jo suffered a big set back when the team’s best post player Trent Gaston went down with a serious leg injury that put him on the bench for the rest of the game.
Forestburg led 17-6 after the first quarter.
The Panthers had to double-down on having high energy and feisty play to make up for their size disadvantage. They started to employ a full-court press, generally started to win the hustle balls and did their best to try and speed up the Longhorns pace faster than what they wanted to play.
Forestburg took a hit when Willett picked up his fourth foul and had to sit not just for most of the second quarter, but all of the third quarter as well.
The Longhorns survived offensively in the second quarter with five different players scoring at least one basket, but the good looks were harder to generate without Willett and his size advantage out there.
Still, Forestburg led 32-14, but Saint Jo came screaming back in the second half.
The Panthers were finally able to have several 3-pointers go in for them in the third quarter after only one found the net in the first half. Saint Jo made three in the period while the defensive intensity really seemed to bother and limit the Longhorns, who only scored seven points.
The Panthers cut the lead to 10 points, down 39-29 but had the game flipped in their style and favor with a raucous crowd getting into it.
Even with Willett coming back in for Forestburg in the fourth quarter, Saint Jo’s charge continued to come.
Midway through and with only four minutes left to play in the game, the Panthers had cut the Longhorns lead to single-digits 41-34 and Forestburg had only scored two points.
The Longhorns did not sweat as they started earning a lot of trips to the free throw line from an aggressive Panthers team that was not just going to let them burn clock.
Despite earning only three attempts in the first three quarters, Forestburg went 10-12 at the free throw line to keep Saint Jo at bay, even as the Panthers cut the lead to six points in the final minutes of action.
The Longhorns won 53-43 thanks to the good free throw shooting.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
Nocona
The Nocona Indians picked up dominant wins against Chico in their series against the Dragons last week.
The Indians won both games 11-0 by run-rule after five innings to get their first district wins of the season.
Nocona was coming off losing both games against Lindsay the previous week in its first district series and bounced back in a big way.
In the first game at home last week, the Indians scored six runs in the first inning and five in the third inning which proved to be all the offense they needed.
Kutter Cabrera led the team with three RBIs while Miller Jentry was second with two RBIs. The team finished with nine hits and drew eight walks.
On the mound, Walker Murphey pitched a shut out while striking out seven and allowing three hits. Defensively, the team committed one fielding error.
The second game saw Nocona score all of its runs in the first three innings, highlighted by scoring six runs in the second inning.
Murphey hit a three-run home run to lead the team while Brody Langford and Landon Fatheree each had two RBIs.
On the mound RJ Walker had a big day, throwing a perfect four innings which means he did not allow a hit or walk anyone. He also struck out eight batters, which put him over 100 career strikeouts in high school. The defense committed no fielding errors.
Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers lost their series against Bryson last week.
The first game was a close 3-0 loss, but the second game was 11-0, done after four and half innings due to run-rule.
The Panthers were coming off close losses to Perrin-Whitt from the previous week. They were hoping they could turn their fortune around playing another 1A program.
Unfortunately in the first game, the Cowboys got off to a good start, scoring three runs in the first inning, with two coming with two outs due to an error and a dropped third strike.
Saint Jo’s pitching and defense tightened up after that to not allow another run in the final six innings. Unfortunately, the Panthers had only two hits and four base runners all game as they lost the close game 3-0.
Charlie Evans and Rylan Forrest had the only two hits for Saint Jo in the game as the team struck out 18 times. Trent Gaston ended the game allowing three runs (one earned) on six hits while striking out five batters and walking two in six innings of work. The defense committed five fielding errors.
Unfortunately, things did not go as well several days later in game two. Bryson scored three runs in both the first and second innings before scoring five runs in the third inning. Saint Jo was not able to get a hit and drew two walks in the game.
The Panther defense committed six fielding errors which led to only three of the 11 runs given up were earned by the pitching staff who gave up five hits, walked six and hit four batters.
Bellevue
The Bellevue Eagles played Perrin-Whitt last week in a series.
The Pirates won the first game 11-1 by run-rule and the second game score was not updated on Game Changer.
The Eagles were coming off one-sided losses to Bryson the previous week in their first district series and was hoping to play better.
Bellevue did get out to an early lead in the first inning. River Trail hit an RBI single in the top of the first inning to go up 1-0, which proved to be the highlight of the game.
Perrin-Whitt scored three runs in the first inning, one in the second inning, two in the fourth inning and five in the fifth inning to win 11-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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