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.
It was announced last week Nocona Athletic director/football coach Blake Crutsinger is resigning from his position at the school after serving four years.
Crutsinger said now is the time for his family to make the move, with his daughter Avery graduating after spending four years at Nocona and with his son Kellar about to enter high school and wanting the same for him at another school.
“With her going off to college, she had a really good four years here and just looking at Keller heading into high school and exploring some opportunities that might be better for him, it is just time,” Crutsinger said.
Crutsinger went 19-22 overall, helping the Indians to two playoff appearances in 2022 and 2023. The team’s best season was 2023, when it went 8-2 and won the district title, the first one in 11 years for the program.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Saint Jo senior Payzlie Cervantes signed her letter of intent to play college basketball last week at Highland College in Kansas. She also played volleyball, softball and ran track at Saint Jo. “After talking with Coach Tana Coleman, I really connected with her and loved the campus vibe and direction she wants for the team,” Cervantes said. “I’m looking forward to continuing my basketball career while getting my associates degree in nursing to become a registered nurse.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Last week Montague County had five girls from Bowie and Saint Jo compete at the state tennis tournament, and one team brought back some hardware.
Sisters from Bowie, junior Heidi and freshman Willow Siebert brought back a bronze medal competing in the 3A girl’s doubles bracket.
The pair were the first people from the program to make it back to state since their half sisters, Meagan and Myah Russell, advanced nine years previously.
The Sieberts came into state as a two-seed, having finished second at the regional tournament the previous week.
The duo was ready as they blew through their first two matches. They beat a team from Hondo in the first round with the scores being 6-1, 6-1 and dominated even more in the second round against a team from Tatum, winning 6-0, 6-1.
That got them through to the second day of the tournament, but Coach Dayna Boothe was worried they had had it too easy on day one.
Playing in the semifinals, the Lady Rabbits faced a familiar foe, a team from Peaster they had beaten in the regional tournament the previous week. Unfortunately, near the end of the first set, with the Sieberts fighting to stay alive, Heidi went after a high lob and slammed into the fence. She hurt her right arm and had to play through it for the rest of the match.
They lost the match with the scores being 6-3, 6-3.
It was an all Peaster final, with the other side of the bracket producing the team that both beat the Sieberts at the regional tournament and won their second straight state title.
Still, despite the disappointment, Bowie is bringing back a bronze medal. According to Boothe, after contacting people who would know dating back to the late 1970s, it could possibly be the program’s first medals from the state tournament in tennis.
Of course, Bowie was not the only school represented. Saint Jo had Taylor Patrick competing in girl’s singles and the team of Bailie Nobile and Maxey Johnson competing in girl’s doubles in the 1A classification.
Senior Patrick was making her third appearance at the state tournament, but her first in the singles competition.
She finished third at the regional meet which meant she had a tough first round matchup against a second seed from Fort Davis.
It took everything from Patrick in a match that lasted two and a half hours. She went down in the first set 6-2, but rebounded in a tight second set to win 6-4 to force a third and final set. She had the momentum and won 6-2 to move on.
She had to summon the energy to play later that day against a fresh one-seed player from Utopia. Patrick lost 6-1, 6-1 to end her Saint Jo career. Her opponent would go on to finish second.
Juniors Johnson and Nobile were making their first appearances at the state meet after finishing second at the regional tournament. In the first round they played a tough match against a team from Marathon. It seemed evenly matched throughout, but small mistakes at inopportune times cost them throughout the match. In the end, the team lost by the scores of 6-3, 6-3.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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