SPORTS
Nocona girls scrape off the Frost 64-37
The Nocona Lady Indians stayed on script and won their area playoff game with ease on Thursday night in Weatherford.
The Lady Indians made quick work of Frost 64-37 to move on in the playoffs as they have their sights on the ultimate prize.
Nocona came into the game as the heavy favorites, rated ninth in the state in 2A in the Texas Association of the Basketball Coaches’ poll with only three losses on the season.
However, it seemed like the Lady Polar Bears might give some kind of challenge for the usual area matchup. Frost had just sneaked into the top 25 in the same 2A poll at 24, having gone 25-7 during the regular season and finished second in its district.
The Lady Polar Bears also were coming off an emotional win in the bi-district round, where they came back from 13 points down entering the fourth quarter to win against De Leon.
Still, Nocona showed there were levels to this type of success.
Both teams started the game pressing the ball on defense, but in different ways. The Lady Indians employed a three-quarters zone trapping style while Frost was trying to play classic man-to-man with some surprise doubles in the back-court.
The first two minutes were sloppy on offense until Nocona scored its first basket. Then the Lady Indians’ defense started forcing turnovers that led to transition opportunities and Nocona was up 10-0 midway through the first quarter.
From there, the game was essentially over.
The Lady Indians led 23-3 heading into the second quarter. Only a couple of late 3-pointers before halftime allowed the Lady Polar Bears to break into double-digits as Nocona was in control 46-10.
The second half saw the Lady Indians really pull back. They stopped pressing and played straight up zone to not pour it on and that allowed Frost to set up its offense. The Lady Polar Bears also used its size advantage to crash the offensive glass at times for second and third chances.
Also in the second half, Nocona started emptying its bench to cycle through all of its players to give them valuable varsity experience with the game already wrapped up.
Frost actually outscored the Lady Indians in the third quarter 10-9, but Nocona still had a comfortable lead 55-20 heading into the fourth quarter.
The final period saw the Lady Indians pull back even more, taking off both of their leading scorers and ball handlers Meg Meekins and Skyler Smith. This is unusual for Coach Kyle Spitzer as he plays both the majority of games no matter the score only unless they are in foul trouble.
Then the final two minutes saw the starting five of the JV team get some varsity experience, doing some things well but also having some tough moments.
Despite getting outscored 17-9 in the fourth quarter, Nocona won easily 64-37.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley Bulldogs had a good final non-district warm-up on Friday at home against Ector.
The Eagles beat the Bulldogs 69-63 in a game where Prairie Valley was trying to play catch up all the way through.
The Bulldogs were coming off a tough tournament at Electra the previous week to try and knock the holiday rust off. Prairie Valley was familiar with Ector, having played the team to start its season back in early November and was hoping to compete better than it did in that first game.
The Eagles came out firing, splashing five 3-pointers, including several deep ones, to go out to a 21-8 lead in the first quarter. Even with the Bulldogs changing out of their preferred zone defense, the 3-pointers continued a bit and opened things up inside the arc.
Thankfully, Prairie Valley’s offense came alive in the second quarter, scoring 18 points and cutting the lead down to 38-26 at halftime.
The third quarter was more of the same, though a different player for Ector started to get hot from beyond the arc. Even as the Bulldogs were able to keep up their offensive production from the second quarter, they could not break through and cut the game to single-digits, trailing 54-42 heading into the final period.
The fourth quarter saw Prairie Valley break through to cut it the lead to single-digits, but just not close enough. Every time the Bulldogs were on the cusp of making it a one or two basket game, the Eagles would make a shot to keep that distance.
In the end, the final score was the closest Prairie Valley got as Ector won 69-63.
Nocona
The Nocona Indians bounced back with a competitive district win at Petrolia on Friday.
The Indians won 60-53 against the Pirates in a game where the middle quarters took drastic swings in momentum.
Nocona was coming off its first district loss against Windthorst as the team sat a 1-1 district record.
Petrolia came into the game at 0-1, but had a bit more time to prepare for the game.
The first quarter was competitive, but the Indians were able to get to the free throw line at will and led 16-11.
Then Nocona’s pressure defense turned up its intensity in the second quarter.
“Our pressure seemed to disrupt them and we were able to get out in transition after forcing turnovers,” Coach Brody Wilson said.
Nocona scored 25 points and led 41-25 at halftime.
Unfortunately, that intensity did not keep up at the start of the third quarter for Nocona.
The Indians took their foot off the gas a little bit which allowed Petrolia’s offense to get back into the game and make up some of the deficit.
The Pirates outscored Nocona 15-7 and trailed only 48-40 heading into the final period.
Thankfully, the Indians bounced back and competed a bit better in the fourth quarter. Nocona was able to keep offensive pace to keep Petrolia at a bit of a distance instead of making it a one score game.
The Indians held on to win 60-53.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly Bowie News.
For more pictures from the Prairie Valley game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6871971&T=1
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