The Bowie Jackrabbits showed their last bit of heart this season in their bi-district loss to Peaster on Feb. 18.
The Greyhounds won 43-36, but had to hold off a furious fourth quarter comeback attempt from the Jackrabbits.
Bowie entered the game knowing it was the underdog. Peaster has historically been the foil to Jackrabbit playoff runs, though the last time the two teams played in 2023 Bowie had pulled the upset in epic fashion after four overtime periods.
This year’s matchup featured a Greyhounds’ team not quite as highly ranked as they have historically been though they did win a district title and came in with 25 wins.
Peaster came out running its usual perimeter based offense, hunting open 3-pointers against Bowie’s zone defense. The Greyhounds were not clicking in the first quarter, making only one 3-pointers as the Jackrabbits tried to do their best to make the open windows close quickly.
On the other side, Peaster was pressing and later started to spring surprise traps that created a few transition opportunities. The Jackrabbits shots were not going in much as they trailed 9-6 after the first quarter.
The second quarter saw the Greyhounds start to knock down some of the open 3-point looks they were getting, making three in the quarter as they pulled a way a little bit.
After Rayder Mann scored all six of the team’s points in the first quarter, four different players scored at least one point in the second, but it did not amount to much as Bowie was still held to single-digits.
The Jackrabbits trailed 22-14 at halftime and needed to find a way to score against the pressing and feisty Peaster team.
The solution did not come in the third quarter. The Greyhounds started to pull away, making three more 3-pointers and scoring in other ways as they scored a game-high 16 points.
Bowie was trying to make things happen by switching to bringing some pressure on defense, but still struggled to score, only scoring six points in the quarter. At one point, the Jackrabbits were down by as many as 20 points and headed into the fourth quarter down 38-20.
The final period saw Bowie make one final push. The team had shown recently it has a gear it can hit to come back in the fourth quarter, though not by as much as 18.
Peaster early on went into a stall type of offense which through off its rhythm when the Jackrabbits were able to force the Greyhounds to shoot and get stops/turnovers.
Slowly but surely the Jackrabbits came back, with five different players scoring at least one basket during the quarter. Bowie also got Peaster into foul trouble and into the bonus early on and were sent to the free throw line a lot.
The culmination of the comeback was when the Jackrabbits cut the lead to five points 40-35 when Boston Farris stole the ball, converted it to a layup while getting fouled and making the free throw for the 3-point play with 1:53 left in the game.
Unfortunately, that would be as close as Bowie would get. The Jackrabbits were running out of time and had to start fouling Peaster to send the team to the free throw line.
The Greyhounds only went 3-6 down the stretch, but the Jackrabbits couldn’t buy another basket, only making one more free throw in the final minute.
Peaster pulled away a little and won 43-36, surviving Bowie’s last onslaught.

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For more pictures from the game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6873310&T=1