They did it.
The boys from Bowie ended the 44-year state title drought to bring the boy’s basketball program their sixth state title with a win at the Alamodome on Saturday against Mount Vernon.
In a low-scoring defensive struggle that went down to the wire, the Jackrabbits pulled out the win 32-28 when senior Kason Spikes iced the game with his two clutch free throws with four seconds left.
Bowie came into the game as the favorite. Mount Vernon had only lost one game all season, but an easy schedule led to them not getting as much love as the battle tested Jackrabbits in the polls. With the Tigers almost collapsing in the semifinal to Santa Rosa after almost losing an 18-point lead, it was Bowie’s game to lose.
Mount Vernon came out and put their best defender on the hot Spikes, who had led the team with 16 points in the semifinal win against Grandview and had been lights out from 3 since the regional tournament.
They also hoped their 6-foot-8-inch post player Tyrese Linwood would give Bowie junior Daniel Mosley enough trouble with his length.
The Jackrabbits knew they had to concentrate on three players defensively. The Tigers point guard Tyler Cooper was great getting into the lane and finishing. Their power forward Kason Pletcher was tough at finishing in traffic and getting to the free throw line.
The main key was not letting their shooter Brandon Aguilar, a 48 percent 3-point shooter on the season, any room to breath as he shoots the majority of his shots off the catch.
The game started off slow and never really picked up for either team. It took two minutes before the first points were scored. Mount Vernon led 6-2 with just under two minutes left in the quarter.
Bowie was able to finish the quarter on a 7-0 run with the team finding ways to sneak interior passes to Daniel to get around Linewood’s length and a Justin Franklin 3. The Jackrabbits led 9-6 heading into the second quarter.
The Tigers retook the lead 10-9 midway through the second quarter with four points from the crafty Pletcher. Franklin hit another 3-pointer off an offensive rebound.
He followed that up with an isolated midrange jumper at the top of the key and a free throw to give the Jackrabbits a 15-13 lead at halftime. Only Daniel and Franklin had scored for Bowie in the half.
The second half started with four points inside from Daniel and Gary Mosley as their inside pressure around the basket were proving to be too much for Mount Vernon. Their 19-13 lead felt much higher with the low scoring nature of the game and it seemed like the Jackrabbits might be starting to pull away as usual.
The Tigers were having none of that. Point guard Cooper started to get more aggressive driving to the basket and found enough creases to attack around the rim. He scored on back to back drives that tied the score at 19-19.
As the quarter was winding down and the score tied 21-21, Daniel found himself with the ball in an unfamiliar place on the court. He had the ball alone in the quarter with his man sagged off him a good few feet and for good reason.
Daniel had only attempted one 3-pointer all season and despite making it, it is not really a shot he looks to take.
With his back to the Jackrabbit faithful, hundreds who made the five-hour trip and filled the designated section past full capacity, everyone was yelling for him to shoot the ball. Daniel rose confidently after a moment’s hesitation and drained the corner 3, like he had been doing it all season.
“I heard the fans behind me yell shoot it so I just let it fly,” Daniel said.
It gave Bowie a slight 24-21 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

To read more, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.