The Bowie Lady Rabbits played in another thriller Friday night at Wichita Falls High School.
A bad first quarter saw them playing catch up most of the game before winning in overtime 50-46 to go to 4-0.
The Lady Rabbits scored only two points in the first quarter and trailed 29-14 at halftime.
“We were not good early, we did not come out ready to play,” Coach Chuck Hall said. “They got after us.”
Bowie played a better third quarter, but still trailed 40-27 heading into the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter saw the Lady Rabbits climb all the way back as their defense held the Lady Coyotes to only four points as they tied the game up in regulation 44-44. By then, Bowie had the momentum and was able to secure the win by playing better in overtime to get the 50-46 win.
With a 4-0 start and with three of the four games close, Hall was not expecting his team would make it through their hosted Hoopin’ into the Holidays tournament this week without a loss and his prediction was correct.
The Lady Rabbits opened the tournament Monday morning against Graham and lost on a layup at the buzzer 37-36.
The game was slow paced and low scoring from both sides. Bowie struggled to handle the Lady Blues full court press at times and turned the ball over and struggled to score inside against the bigger girls from Graham.
Conversely, the Lady Rabbits packed the paint in a 2-3 zone to prevent the Lady Blues from getting good position inside for most of the game.
Neither team could get much of an advantage in the first half as the score was tied 16-16 at halftime.
The third quarter saw more scoring from both teams as they both ran cleaner offenses that found easier shots as the Lady Blues made a couple of three-pointers to take advantage of the zone while Aslyn Davis made two three-pointers of her own for Bowie. The Lady Rabbits led 28-26 heading into the fourth quarter.
Bowie slowly extended its lead to 34-30 midway through the fourth quarter. With 2:39 to go, the Lady Rabbits started to stall forcing Graham to foul them. After a missed free throw, the Lady Blues got to the free throw line and made one of two. They then were able to steal the ball from Bowie and score in transition to cut the lead to 34-33 with a little more than a minute left.
After another steal, Graham was able to take the lead 35-34 with 32 seconds left. The Lady Rabbits were able to quickly get the ball inside to Howard, who was fouled on the shot attempt with 21 seconds left. She made both clutch free throws to give Bowie a 36-35 lead.
The Lady Blues were able to run the clock down and found a driving lane where one of their players made a contested layup/floater over her defender as the clock wound down to win 37-36.

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