SPORTS
Forestburg coach retiring
Eldon Van Hooser is leaving Forestburg better than he found it.
The head boy’s basketball coach is retiring after more than 30 years, spending the last five at Forestburg.
Van Hooser did not come to this decision because of a lack of fire or feeling tired after decades in the profession. He had to for family reasons.
“My wife has MS (multiple sclerosis) and it’s a disease where you have trouble standing and walking and she needs help,” Van Hooser said. “I am able to so I am going to step away from teaching and coaching to be there for her.”
Van Hooser was hired in 2019. Along with being the boy’s basketball coach, he also was the football team’s defensive coordinator.
There were some lean years for Forestburg on the boy’s athletic side, with numbers being low and the available athletes being mostly underclassmen.
For two years, the Longhorns’ boy’s basketball team won few games and one of those seasons saw the team field five players on the high school team.
“One of those years we had COVID-19 and the other we had five kids,” Van Hooser said. “It was very rough. After that we worked with the kids and we had a good freshman group coming up. Next year they are going to be seniors.”
That group has helped to turn the program around. Last year the young Longhorns team contested for a playoff spot and just barely missed it finishing fifth in the district.
This season, that same group took a leap and finished second in district with a record of 7-5.
Despite losing its last two regular season games in dramatic fashion heading into the playoffs, the team stepped up in the bi-district game.
Playing against an athletic Newcastle team, Forestburg led for most of the game.
Unfortunately, the previous game against Bellevue saw the Longhorn team blow the lead late in the fourth quarter against a hard pressing style team and they were suffering the same fate against the Bobcats down the stretch.
Fortunately, Forestburg held on just enough to win 53-46. It was the first boy’s basketball playoff win in nine years for Forestburg.
“It was huge for our program,” Van Hooser said. “This new year we will have new goals. The new coach will have some goals of his own, but I set some for the team and think that we have come a long way.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
SPORTS
Basketball Roundup
Nocona girls
The Nocona Lady Indians easily won their district home opener on Tuesday night against Electra.
The Lady Indians won 87-26 against the Lady Tigers.
Nocona came in confident after getting an easy win against Archer City to start off district play the previous week.
The Lady Indians dominated from the beginning, going up 28-7 in the first quarter and leading 51-11 at halftime. Coach Kyle Spitzer kept the team’s foot on the pedal in the third quarter before loosening the things a tad as the bench played a lot of the fourth quarter.
In the end the team had five players score in double-figures, with three of them being bench players. Meg Meekins led the team with 19 points and five assists. Aubree Kleinhans scored 10 points. Off the bench, Paige Davis had 13 points, Ayden Patton had 11 points and Bayler Smith had 10 points.
Nocona boys
The Nocona Indians had a tough game against Holliday at home on Tuesday night.
The Eagles won 54-29 against the Indians, having rough second and fourth quarters.
Nocona was coming off an up and down performance at the Poolville tournament and was hoping to give its former district opponent a challenge.
In the first quarter the Indians hung with Holliday, trailing only 13-10. Then the Indians offense failed to score more than single-digits in the next three quarters as the Eagles lead grew more and more.
Nocona scored 19 points in the final three quarters as Holliday won 54-29.
Karson Kleinhans led the team with 10 points and three assists. Zyrus Moreno scored six points and Oscar Salomon-Gomez scored five points.
Saint Jo girls
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers won at Prestonwood Christian Academy on Tuesday night.
The Lady Panthers got the victory 61-40 against the Lady Lions.
It was a team effort as four players finished in double-figures for Saint Jo. Krista Reeves led the team with 15 points.
Payzlie Cervantes scored 14, Jordyn O’Neal scored 13 and Aubrey Morman had 10 points. Taylor Patrick had a team high 13 rebounds and nine assists.
Forestburg boys
The Forestburg Longhorns lost a close game at Victory Christian Academy in Decatur.
The Patriots held on to win 43-40 against the Longhorns.
Forestburg was trailing only 22-21 at halftime, but according to Coach Curtis Enis, the team came out flat in the third quarter and fell behind 34-28. The Longhorns made a charge in the fourth quarter fell short by one basket in the end.
Jesus Sanchez led the team with 16 points and Kyler Willett was second with 11 points.
The Longhorns played Community Christian on Friday.
Gold-Burg boys
The Gold-Burg Bears lost a tough game at Garner on Tuesday night.
The Longhorns won 66-41 against the Bears.
Gold-Burg had a tough start to the game only scoring five points in the first quarter. Even with the Bears bouncing back to have good second and fourth quarters offensively, it was not enough to dig Gold-Burg out of the double-digit hole to start the game.
Camden Dreyer led the team with nine points and three made 3-pointers while Keelyn Case was second with eight points.
Bellevue girls
The Bellevue Lady Eagles beat Windthorst at home on Tuesday night.
The Lady Eagles earned the 46-33 victory against the bigger Lady Trojans thanks to a big fourth quarter performance.
Bellevue struggled to start the game, trailing 13-4 after the first quarter.
The Lady Eagles struck back and cut the lead to one basket 19-17 heading into halftime.
Still Windthorst held on to its lead, growing it to 30-25 heading into the fourth quarter.
From there, Bellevue turned up the intensity and dominated.
The Lady Eagles nearly doubled their three quarter total scoring 21 points. On the flip side, they limited the Lady Trojans to only three points on free throws in the in the final period.
Bellevue won running away with it 46-33.
Missing scores
The Bowie News did not receive scores from the coaches of the Saint Jo boy’s, Forestburg girls, the Prairie Valley boys and the Bellevue boy’s teams. The Bowie boys and Prairie Valley girls teams did not play on Tuesday.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
SPORTS
Lady Rabbits open district with win
The Bowie Lady Rabbits started off district play on Tuesday with an impressive home win against Iowa Park.
The Lady Rabbits won 45-31 in a game that was not close for most of it as Bowie jumped out to a good lead.
The Lady Rabbits are coming off a season where they only had one district win and had a lot of new faces to varsity this year. Despite that, in its pre-district schedule Bowie has proven doubters wrong as it went 14-5. Now, the Lady Rabbits will prove how real that record is against a district team that pre-season was ranked to finish fourth in the district.
The Lady Rabbits also had another resource on their side as assistant coach Griffin Fields had spent the previous six seasons as the Lady Hawks head basketball coach. With his job being to come up with the team’s defensive game plan anyway, Bowie was even more equipped for Iowa Park.
That showed up in the first quarter as the Lady Rabbits’ defense zone defense just seemed to be playing in perfect unison.
Every shot thrown up was contested. Attempts to drive to the basket or get the ball to the free throw line were thwarted. Bowie’s defense shut out the Lady Hawks in the first quarter.
On offense, the Lady Rabbits were moving the ball around Iowa Park’s zone defense, getting the ball to a cutting Laney Enlow who scored six of the team’s 12 points as Bowie led 12-0.
The second quarter saw the Lady Hawks finally get some things going. It was not pretty, but they finally got some shots to go in around the basket.
The Lady Rabbits were going to live with allowing a few outside shooters letting it fly and living with the results. Iowa Park made one 3-pointer and scored 10 points in the second quarter, but Bowie’s offense kept things going as well.
Laney Segura made two 3-pointers and scored eight of the team’s 14 points in the second quarter.
The Lady Rabbits led 26-10 heading into halftime.
The Lady Hawks switched to more of a man-to-man defense in the second half and Bowie’s offense struggled.
Iowa Park’s offense did not have much success shooting from the perimeter, but were finding opportunities to score in transition as well as just continuing to pound the ball inside.
The Lady Hawks cut the lead to 35-24 heading into the fourth quarter.
Early in the period, Iowa Park cut the score to single-digits 37-30 and looked poised to push the Lady Rabbits in the final minutes.
From there Bowie’s defense locked in and allowed the Lady Hawks only one point the rest of the way.
The Lady Rabbits got some breathing room as Parker Riddle and Lanie Moore made 3-pointers down the stretch to push the lead back over double-digits.
A few made free throws in the final minute and Bowie won comfortably 45-31.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News. For more pictures from the game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6871225&T=1
SPORTS
Girls Basketball Roundup
Forestburg
The Forestburg Lady Horns had a good final tournament playing in Thackerville last week.
The Lady Horns went 2-1 overall and finished third overall while playing in the tournament just over the border in Oklahoma.
Forestburg played 3A Tishomingo’s JV team and won 44-33 to start off the tournament. The second game the Lady Horns lost to Class A team Ringling 37-28.
The third and final game of the tournament for Forestburg was against a fellow Texas team, 1A Garner. The Lady Horns won 43-32 to close out the tournament strong and leave with some hardware.
Brenna Briles scored a tournament high 54 points while grabbing 20 rebounds. Jocelyn Rich scored 40 points, with 22 coming in the final game while grabbing 24 rebounds.
Bowie
The Bowie Lady Rabbits had a great final tournament at Jacksboro last week to head into district play feeling confident.
The Lady Rabbits went 3-0 against smaller schools, winning by two blowouts and one close game.
Bowie first played Perrin-Whitt and beat the 1A Lady Pirates easily 47-27. Laney Enlow led the team with 18 points and eight rebounds. Parker Riddle was second with nine point and Laney Segura scored eight points. Hanna Bell had a team high four assists and also had four steals, along with Segura.
The second game proved to be the most competitive of the tournament for the Lady Rabbits. Playing 1A Gordon, a state-ranked team, Bowie led 27-25 at halftime and won 53-50.
Riddle led the team with 14 points, Enlow was second with 10 points. Bell grabbed a team high 11 rebounds to go with eight points along with Lanie Moore.
The Lady Rabbits then played local team Bellevue. The teams had played earlier in the season where the Lady Eagles gave Bowie more of a game than expected. At the tournament, the Lady Rabbits won easily 51-20 to close out the tournament strong.
Segura had a team high 12 points while Payton Holt was second with 11 points. Kendall Fallis and Sadie Weaver scored six points off the bench while Bell also scored six points.
Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians started off district play with an easy win at Archer City on Friday.
The Lady Indians won 63-27 against the Lady Cats as they showed why they are favorites to win their seventh straight district title.
Nocona came into the game following a big win playing at defending 1A state champion Newcastle earlier in the week. District play is just another step on its way to hopefully getting back to the state tournament.
Archer City came into the game with a modest 9-5 record, but had mostly played schools its own size and level. The Lady Indians showed the Lady Cats what level they were at.
Nocona started the game off fast with full-court pressure on defense and looking to push the ball on offense. The Lady Indians led 18-9 after the first quarter and 36-11 at halftime.
The third quarter saw Nocona keep up the pace as it added to its lead, up 54-18.
The Lady Indians took their foot off the gas in the fourth quarter, getting a lot of their bench unit some playing time as they coasted to the win 63-27.
Meg Meekins led the team with 17 points, eight steals and four assists. Reagan Phipps scored 14 points and made four 3-pointers.
Avery Crutsinger added 10 points as well and Aubree Kleinhans grabbed a team high seven rebounds.
Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers easily won at Throckmorton on Friday night.
The Lady Panthers won 64-29 against the Lady Greyhounds.
Saint Jo came into the game on a good stretch, having won five of its last six games to start December, usually by comfortable margins.
It was a similar story as Saint Jo’s aggressive pressing defense and fast offensive pace quickly allowed the team to run away with the lead.
Payzlie Cervantes led the team with 28 points while Jordyn O’Neal was second with 16 points and Krista Reeves scored eight.
Missing scores
The Bowie News did not receive results from the Bellevue and Prairie Valley coaches.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
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