The Nocona Lady Indians lost a tough challenge on Saturday when they traveled to play at state-ranked Bridgeport.
The Sissies won 44-39 in a game that was not as close as that final score would indicate as the Lady Indians struggled.
Nocona was coming off a tough tournament four days before at Decatur playing bigger schools that also routinely outsized the Lady Indians. The previous two years it’s been the same story and Nocona usually can overcome that disadvantage.
Bridgeport was not just a bigger 4A schools with bigger players. The Sissies were 9-1 to start the season and were ranked eighth in the state according to the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches poll. The team’s best player also was its tallest post player, Anna Green, who signed her letter of intent to play at Nelson College in early November.
From the jump Nocona brought extra defensive attention to Green anytime she caught the ball in the post. Avery Crutsinger is used to battling girls bigger and taller than her after two seasons of experience, but relies on her teammates bringing extra help while she does her best to make opponents not get the best position down low.
The Sissies were able to pass out of the double-teams and make the Lady Indians scrambling defense pay by making a few open 3-pointers and driving into the lane. Bridgeport had other big players on its frontline that could make Nocona pay near the basket.
Still, the Lady Indians defense was holding out about as well as it could have minus completely shutting down the Sissies. Nocona was surprisingly not bulldozed on the glass on either side of the court, rebounding pretty evenly with the bigger Bridgeport team and even outhustling the Sissies for some offensive rebounds of its own.
The problem for the Lady Indians was offensively they just could not make a shot. Nocona pushed the ball when it could and took open 3-pointers early in some possessions, but not many went in all game. Trying to drive to the basket against Bridgeport meant challenging taller and bigger girls and not many friendly whistles were being given out for free throw attempts in the first three quarter.
The Sissies led 14-5 after the first quarter and 25-13 at halftime. All-state player Meg Meekins was held scoreless for probably the first time in her career as her usual hanging floaters and shots near the rim just were not going in. Nocona had made only two 3-pointers in the first half and it did not get much better in the second.
The Lady Indians tried to up their pace in the third quarter, but to varying degrees of success. Coach Kyle Spitzer, knowing the team is coming off an extended break, at several times during the game, subbed in all four of his bench players at once, leaving in only one starter with strong ball handling skills to help run the show offensively.
These bench units feature three of its four members with limited varsity experience up until this season and Spitzer hopes to have a few emerge so he knows who he can trust later in the season.
For now, the bench unit provided some good influx of energy, but still struggled to score like the starters and made some busts defensively that is expected this early in the season.
Nocona was not outplayed by a lot in the third quarter as Bridgeport won 11-8, but the Lady Indians let Green scored six of her team high 13 points during the period as they lost her at times.
Also, it meant Nocona’s hole got bigger as the Sissies led by double-digits 36-21 heading into the fourth quarter.
Bridgeport still held that advantage more than halfway through the final period, up 41-26 when the Lady Indians started to go into desperation mode.
Nocona brought full-court pressure and started to put more pressure on driving to the rim. More fouls started to get called as the intensity picked up and the Lady Indians took advantage.
Neither team were making free throws at a high percentage throughout the game, which came back to bite Nocona since the final score was close enough that those missed free throws could have changed the outcome of the game. Still the team shot better in the fourth quarter than Bridgeport which allowed the Lady Indians to catch up.
The final few minutes dragged on as both coaches used all of their timeouts and with the frequent stops for fouls. Green even fouled out for Bridgeport.
Meekins scored eight of her team high 12 points in the final period and the Lady Indians nearly doubled their total from the first three quarters with 18 points.
Still, it was not enough as the Sissies held on to win 44-39.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For more pictures from the game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870855&T=1