The Bowie Lady Rabbits dropped their first district game of the season against City View on Tuesday.
The Lady Mustangs won 42-29 against the Lady Rabbits.
Before the game, Bowie joined City View players in a moment of solidarity following the loss of City View Athletic Director Heath Aldrich during the holiday break as he succumbed to pancreatic cancer.
The Lady Rabbits were 2-0 to start district, with good wins against Iowa Park and Jacksboro before the holiday break. Bowie had recently played a non-district warm-up game against state-ranked Pottsboro last week to try and get some rust off, hoping it could prepare the team for this game.
City View was also 2-0 and was a pre-season favorite to win the district title despite staring several underclassmen.
Bowie started the game hoping to clog the middle with a tight 2-3 zone defense and dare the Lady Mustangs to shoot from the perimeter.
It was working initially, but the Lady Rabbits also were having trouble getting good looks or making shots when the opportunity presented itself against City View’s tough man defense.
Once the Lady Mustangs made a few baskets near the end of the first quarter that allowed them to establish their full-court press defense. That played a bigger role in the following quarter as Bowie trailed only 8-2.
The second quarter saw City View pick up its intensity a notch. Every pass and dribble was tough for the Lady Rabbits.
While Bowie could break through the press most of the time, trying to run half court sets was tough with the Lady Mustangs looking to jump any obvious pass.
The Lady Rabbits were not able to make City View pay often enough for its aggressive defensive play and turned the ball over too much.
This led to the Lady Mustangs getting more scoring opportunities in transition. Also, despite Bowie living with giving them open perimeter shots to certain players, City View made it pay by making several in the quarter.
The Lady Mustangs led 25-10 at halftime as they established control of the game. The Lady Rabbits went into halftime searching for answers.
Bowie cleaned up some of the turnovers from the second quarter.
This allowed the team to double its fist half total in the third quarter alone, but unfortunately scoring was still tough for the Lady Rabbits.
Bowie’s defense tried to hold up, but despite the Lady Rabbits best efforts, City View players founds lanes to drive to the basket and picked up plenty of free throw attempts that made up most of its offensive output in the second half.
The Lady Mustangs led 35-20 after the third quarter and was able to slow the pace down and hold the ball in the fourth quarter to win comfortably 42-29.

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=6871860&T=1