SPORTS
Lady Indians win the state title
They did it.
The Nocona Lady Indians knocked at the door of a state championship one more time and won the 2A Division I state title on Feb. 27 at the Alamodome.
After losing at the buzzer in the title game the previous year, the Lady Indians instead dominated for three quarters against San Saba to easily win 54-37.
Nocona had been through the ringer its previous two games playing teams with strong post players, beating Muenster in the regional final in double overtime and upsetting second ranked Panhandle in the state semifinal.
Just surviving those games had the Lady Indians as prepared as they could be, having stared elimination in the face in both of those games before overcoming.
Nocona was favored coming into the game, ranked eighth overall in 2A in the last regular season poll while San Saba was ranked 14th.
The Lady Dillos had not been challenged all playoff run, but had only faced one team ranked in the top 25 in the state on their way to the championship game.
Most importantly for the Lady Indians, San Saba did not feature any players with real size or post up games like they had struggled to contain. The Lady Dillos instead relied on their full-court pressure defense to create turnovers and create scoring opportunities in transition while relying on a trio of senior players with a lot of experience.
If Nocona could keep the game played at the pace it wanted and not let San Saba’a pressure let the game get too chaotic, it would favor the Lady Indians.
The first quarter was ugly offensively for both teams. Nocona saw guard Meg Meekins continuously drive into the paint, but her finishes were just slightly off. Besides her getting fed on a cut by Reagan Phipps for a basket and Meekins finding Jasmine Olivares open for a layup, the Lady Indians offense was not able to make the open shots they were getting.
On the other side, Nocona’s defense was man-to-man, with the emphasis on bringing a double-team when the ball entered the lane on either a drive or post up. This left San Saba opting to fire away from 3-point range, with late contests coming from the Lady Indian defenders and the Lady Dillos just not finding any success.
The lack of offense from San Saba meant it was not able to set up its press defense like it wanted besides initially trying to deny Meekins the ball. She used this tactic against the Lady Dillos in the waning seconds, leaving her defender in the dust on the inbounds play and racing up the floor before casually banking in a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
It gave Nocona a 7-5 lead after the first quarter.
San Saba came out in the second quarter more determined to set up a full-court press. The Lady Indians initially tried to aggressively attack it by sending passes over the top, but it did result in one turnover out of bounds and Nocona was still in a rut offensively.
Then Meekins, who was so far out her foot was on the UIL logo, decided to launch a 3-pointer that went through the net to give Nocona back the lead 10-9 midway through the second quarter and the Lady Indians were off.
The next possession, Nocona was passing the ball around and Aubree Kleinhans, catching it on the other side but almost as far out as Meekins, launched a 3-pointer that went in and the Lady Indians were now up 13-9.
San Saba answered with a basket following an offensive rebound to make it 13-11, but then it was all Nocona until halftime.
Meekins made another 3-pointer, this one from the corner she somehow banked in. Phipps made a mid-range shot following a mad scramble for the ball. Meekins then did one of her patented spins in the lane followed by a tough floater.
Nocona led 20-11 at halftime, but it felt like a bigger lead.
San Saba had gone 0-9 from 3-point range in the first half. The Lady Dillos tried to set up their top scorer, Cinzlea Stanton, in the post since she had a few inches on Meekins. Every time she caught the ball a double-team had come which limited her effectiveness to three points.
The second half saw the Lady Indians pick up where they left off. Meekins hit another floater in the lane and deep 3-pointer. Bayler Smith made an open 3-pointer before forcing a turnover on defense.
Nocona was up 30-12 midway through the third quarter and things were looking like the Lady Indians were the better team and was going to continue pulling away.
San Saba then got a push from Stanton until the end of the quarter. She scored 12 points in the next four minutes, including a deep 3-pointer of her own, the first made shot from distance for her team.
This allowed the Lady Dillos to show some life though they were still down double-digits 35-24 heading into the fourth quarter.
San Saba continued that momentum to start the fourth quarter. The team got a 3-pointer to go through from Chassidy Gonzales. Then a block on defense led to a transition basket from Olivia Sebastian.
The 18-point lead was now down to six points, with the Lady Dillos trailing 35-29 with almost the rest of the fourth quarter to play. It could have gone bad if momentum had stayed on San Saba’s side, but instead Nocona had an immediate answer.
Kleinhans knocked in an open corner 3-pointer 30 seconds later to give the Lady Indians some room. The Lady Dillos threw the ball out of bounds on their next possession. Nocona then scored as Meekins cut the basket for another floater.
The Lady Indian defense then made something happen as Kleinhans jumped a passing lane before passing the ball up to Meekins for an uncontested layup.
Nocona was now up 42-29 and San Saba had to take a timeout. A literal minute of game time had seen the Lady Indians go on a 7-0 run, taking all of the momentum the Lady Dillos had been playing with since the middle of the third quarter.
From there, it was a slow march to the end of the game.
San Saba tried to bring its press to force the action and not allow Nocona to passively run the clock. Unfortunately for the Lady Dillos, their players could not stay in front of Meekins, who broke the press by herself several times leading to layups for her teammates and an open 3-pointer for her.
San Saba made one more 3-pointer as a team, but just could not score enough to come back from double-digits while the Lady Indians lead grew and grew.
With 20 seconds left, Meekins dribbled the ball up the court and it was clear the Lady Dillos were not going to pressure her to give up the ball. The realization on all of Nocona’s players faces on the court seemed to hit at once. The stoic Meekins spiked the ball in celebration as the Lady Indians rushed on the court in celebration. While the team had shared more frantic and emotional celebrations following wins in the previous week, this one was the sweetest.
Nocona won 54-37.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
For more photos from the game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6873406&T=1
A solid day was had by Montague county high school tracksters at the State Track and Field Meet May 16 in Austin.
Bellevue’s Mattie Broussard had a pair of second place finishes in both the 800-meter run with a time of 2:21.41 and the 3,200-meter run with a time of 11:31.33. Broussard also was 4th in the 1,600-meters with a time of 5:22.18.
Her teammate Brylie Hager was 9th in the 110-meter hurdles in 19.93.
Forestburg’s Brenna Briles was 4th in the triple jump with a 35’9 1’2” leap. Her teammate Jocelyn Rich was 4th in the pole vault with a 9’ leap.
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
Bowie had a pair of top four finishes at the State Track and Field Meet May 14.
Sophomore Brayden Willett made it onto the medal stand, finishing 3rd in the 1,600-meter run with a time of 4:17.89. Bowie junior Tyler Richey finished 4th in the pole vault after a 14’6” effort.
The top two finishers from Holliday, also in Bowie’s district, celebrated with him after he crossed the finish line.
“It was kind of surprising,” Willett said about Ryder and Noah Stroman embracing him in a celebratory hug. “They’re good guys, so it was kind of cool.”
For further details, pick up a copy of Thursday’s Bowie News.
This past week found your outdoor scribe doing some rather mundane things such as yard work, vegetable gardening and repairs around the old cabin. Oh, I also wrapped up a couple of magazine articles. I always enjoy sharing my adventures with all of you in this column but to be perfectly honest, not nearly as much as my ‘field work’ hunting and fishing which is an iatrical part of any good outdoor column. If you’re like me, you much prefer reading about an adventure that you can also partake.
I am far more comfortable telling you about an outdoor experience I had firsthand knowledge of rather than the reporting part of my job as an outdoor communicator. So, this week, I’d do a bit of ‘reporting’ and share some planned adventures I have scheduled for the next couple weeks. By the time you’re reading this, I will have already been in the woods in quest of a fat ‘eater’ hog and probably have some freshly caught blue catfish fillets in the freezer, details will follow in the next couple of weeks.
I’ll kick things off early in the week heading down to my friend Jeff Rice’s Buck and Bass Ranch located on the upper end of Lake Fork. Jeff produces our weekly TV show “A Sportsman’s Life” which airs on Carbon TV and YouTube. Our plan is to film a segment of our show on stalking wild hogs. It will be a challenge to capture the shot with all the thick grown spring vegetation. It could happen fast and require a fast shot. We will be breaking in my CVA Cascade scout rifle in 308 caliber. This short barrel little rifle is light and easy to handle in thick cover, ideal for this type of hunting. Our plan is to hit the woods during the last couple hours of daylight and ease along the trails, watching and especially listening for hogs. Wild porkers are vocal critters and it’s common to hear them before seeing them. We will play the wind and attempt to get downwind and then close the distance for a shot but you can never guess how a hog hunt will unfold. Wild pork or not, Jeff and I always have a great time together and I plan to bring a side of wild pork ribs already slow smoked and covered in brown sugar and BBQ sauce with a side of camp baked beans!
After a tasty dinner we plan to get a good night’s sleep and head out the next morning for a planned fishing trip with guide David Hanson at Lake Tawakoni. Both channel and blue catfish are on a very good bite right but it’s hard to pass up those snow white blue catfish fillets when the bite is good. David is, to my knowledge, the most veteran catfish guide on the lake and became friends close to a quarter-century ago when we first began fishing
together. The plan is to use freshy cut shad in shallow water and target eater size blues weighing between 2 and about 10 pounds but as every catfish angler knows, it’s always possible to connect with a big trophy size blue when fishing Tawakoni.
Next week, I plan to join my long-time friend J.C. McCollough on the Red River below the Texoma dam. I’ve been fishing and hunting with J.C. for many years and look forward to getting with him again. I would describe this to catching big catfish in a barrel but in this case the deep holes in the river are comprised of several acres. The water level in the river below Texoma are dictated by the water release at the dam by the Corp of Engineers. When there is a current in the river, fish move upstream to feed on baitfish coming through the dam. When the water recedes, they fish move into the deeper holes where baitfish also seek refuge from the falling water. Catching will be fast paced with the chance to connect with some big fish as well as limits of “eater” size fish. We’ll be rigging with big live gizzard shad fished weightless on a free line, using medium spinning gear. The bigger fish will often nail the frisky live shad and the fresh cut bait is a sure way to connect with lots of smaller fish. There is something very exciting about fishing big live baits on a slack line. One minute your bait will be darting around and you will occasionally feel it taking up slack and the next when a big blue catfish grabs the bait, the rod will bow and the fight will be on. There is usually no ‘setting the hook’, by the time you feel the fish, it will already be hooked and making a strong run to the nearest submerged brush. Your job will be to keep the drag set just enough to keep pressure on the fish but not so much as to cause the line to break.
J.C. uses his airboat to access these deeper holes because of the very shallow water. While it’s not impossible to portage a kayak or small boat in the river, it often requires a few miles travel to get to these deep holes, this is best accomplished by experienced kayakers with plenty of endurance. There was a time when I was game for this type fishing but I much prefer to do my river fishing these days from a boat designed to negotiate the shallow waters.
Squirrel season is underway in many of the east Texas counties and there’s some pretty good fox squirrel hunting here close to home in Kaufman county and I’ve been thinking about how tasty a big skillet of smothered squirrel with rice, gravy and biscuits would be. Bream are on the beds now and my friend Edgar Cotton invited me to come do some ‘perch jerking’ with him and his son David-it’s in the plans! Well, hopefully next week I will have a ‘sure nuff’ adventure of two to relate you you-I’m ready to get some relief from all this work around the homeplace! LC
You can contact Tawakoni/Fork catfish guide David Hanson at 902-268-7391. Contact J.C. McCollough at 580-372-0320.
Listen to Luke’s podcast, “Catfish Radio” just about everywhere podcast are found.
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