The Bowie Jackrabbits improved their win streak to four games after picking up two close district wins against Holliday and Vernon last week.
The Jackrabbits completed a comeback to beat the Eagles 40-35 and just outmuscled the Lions 34-33 on the road to improve their standings in district.
Bowie came into last week with a 4-4 district record, but were coming off two wins against teams it had previously lost against. The Jackrabbits played another one of those teams on Jan. 28 at home in Holliday.
The first game between the teams went into overtime as the Eagles pulled out the win by two points. This time around, the game was a bit different.
The first quarter was low-scoring and competitive. Bowie tried to prevent Holliday from getting the ball inside the paint into its athletic front court players. The Eagles countered by hitting on their open 3-point shots against the Jackrabbits zone, making three in the first quarter as they led 11-8.
Bowie had trouble attacking Holliday’s zoning press defense. The team had a bad sequence late in the second quarter, allowing the Eagles to force some turnovers they converted to quick points as Holliday went on a 7-2 run and was up 23-15 at halftime.
The Jackrabbits were still in range for a comeback and was playing solid defense, but they just had not been able to get much of anything going offensively.
That continued in the third quarter as the Eagles broke away. It seemed every pass was one step ahead of Bowie’s zone defense and Holliday was getting good shots while the Jackrabbits continued to struggle.
The Jackrabbits were only outscored 10-5 in the third quarter, but that 33-20 lead felt insurmountable by the end of the quarter. Bowie had made only two field goals all quarter and nothing seemed to change from the first half besides not turning the ball over in the back court.
The Jackrabbits were already trying to turn up the pressure on defense, but with so little success offensively they were only able to bring it so much following a rebound instead of a made basket.
The final period started and immediately it seemed like Bowie found another gear with its sheer effort. The Jackrabbits scored a quick seven points in only a two and half minutes, forcing things to happen with extra effort plays that forced turnovers, earned second chance shots and generally changed the nature of the game.
Holliday took a time out to try and regroup and tried to emphasize holding the ball to run the clock before getting a shot. That slowed Bowie’s offense a bit, but the momentum was out of the bag and the Jackrabbits kept coming.
The Eagles sometimes would get a good shot, but how those shots were going in the first three quarters, they were just rolling out in the fourth quarter.
After only scoring one point in the next three minutes, the Jackrabbits had back-to-back sequences where Boston Farris and Rayder Mann made 3-pointers to cut the lead to one point as they trailed 35-34.
After getting a stop, Gaige Goodman was fouled getting a rebound and was sent to the free throw line thanks to Holliday being over the foul limit. He stepped up and made both clutch free throws to give Bowie its first lead of the game 36-35 with 1:14 left to play.
The Jackrabbits got another stop on defense and after running a lot of clock Goodman again was sent to the free throw line. Again he made both free throws, giving Bowie a 38-35 lead with 23 seconds left.
Holliday threw the ball away to give Bowie back the ball. Mann was sent to the free throw line where he also made both to put the game out of reach. The Jackrabbits completed the comeback, outscoring the Eagles 20-2 in the fourth quarter to win 40-35.
Goodman led the team with 14 points while Mann was second with 11 points.
Bowie then traveled to play at Vernon on Friday to wrap up the week. The Jackrabbits had easily beaten the Lions the first time the two teams played, with Bowie’s superior size being too much for Vernon to handle. With the Lions being the team that had struggled all district long, it looked like the Jackrabbits might have an easy night, but Vernon did not let that happen.
It was another low-scoring game, but initially Bowie had the advantage, up 6-2 after the first quarter.
The Lions bounced back in the second quarter and dominated the Jackrabbits, outscoring Bowie 17-6 as they took a 19-12 lead into halftime.
The Jackrabbits knew they had to play better defense and use their size advantage better offensively as well in the second half.
Bowie equaled its first half total in the third quarter scoring 12 points as the team went to the basket more and earned several free throw attempts.
Vernon had cooled off offensively and now led 26-24 heading into the final period.
Both teams had trouble scoring in the fourth quarter. Bowie held the Lions to only two field goals while the Jackrabbits went cold from the perimeter. Bowie looked inside to its post player Goodman who came through, scoring all eight of the teams 10 points.
It proved just enough to give the Jackrabbits the 34-33 win.
Goodman led the team with 16 points while Adam Pickett and Farris each scored four points.

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For more pictures from the Holliday game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6872767&T=1