The Nocona Lady Indians fell one game short of winning their third tournament of the season at the North Central Texas College Holiday Tournament last weekend.
Coming off a break from the holidays, the Lady Indians fell to Decatur in the championship game to earn tournament runner-up.
Nocona started the tournament with a rematch against a tough Valley View team. It was rough and slow going at first, but both teams were able to pick up momentum as the game went on. The Lady Indians offense stepped up big in the fourth quarter and was able to wrestle control away from the Lady Eagles to win 46-38.
Averee Kleinhans led the way with 27 points while Karlee Brown scored nine points off the bench.
Nocona next played Meridian. The Lady Yellowjackets stood no chance as the Lady Indians got off to a raucus start. The Lady Indians led 22-5 after the first quarter. Meridian’s offense never really was allowed to get anything going until the game was far out of reach. Nocona won 53-23.
Chloe Daughtry, Trystin Fenoglio and Kleinhans each had a team high nine points in a game where everyone got to play and scored at least once.
The Lady Indians next game was against Era where the score was close throughout.
Nocona held a tight 31-30 lead at halftime and 49-45 lead heading into the fourth quarter. From there, the Lady Indians forced the Lady Hornets to foul them. Nocona scored nine of their 14 points in the quarter from the free throw line as Era ran out of time. The Lady Indians won 66-56.
Kleinhans led the team with 32 points while Fenoglio had 16 and Brooke O’Neal scored 12 in the second half.
The win got Nocona into the championship game against Decatur. The first quarter was relatively low scoring with the Lady Indians gaining the edge, leading 11-8. The Lady Eagles were able to make up for it in the second quarter as they lead 28-25 at halftime.
Nocona could not wrestle the lead away from Decatur in the third quarter, but still only trailed 38-36 heading into the fourth quarter.
Unfortunately, the Lady Indians could not get many shots to fall in the fourth quarter while the Lady Eagles whittled the clock down and forced Nocona to foul them. They made most of their free throws as the lead grew little by little until the game was done. Decatur won 53-45.
Kleinhans led the team with 26 points, scoring most of those points in the second and third quarter. Fenoglio was second with eight points.

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