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Nocona wraps up undefeated district title against Bowie

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The Nocona Lady Indians got to put the exclamation point on the end of district play Tuesday at home on senior night.
The Lady Indians took down rival Bowie 49-31 to cap off an undefeated run to their second straight district title.
The Lady Rabbits came in wanting revenge after losing earlier at home as well as a shot at getting the second seed with a win. Avenging two of its three losses and riding a four game win streak, Bowie came in with a lot to play for even with Nocona already wrapping up the district title the previous game.
The Lady Rabbits came into the game with a different defensive strategy to try and shut down the Lady Indians top scorer Averee Kleinhans.
A few weeks earlier the team had had success shutting down Childress’ top scorer using the box-diamond defense, assigning one player to prevent that player from getting the ball while the rest of the team plays zone defense.
Early on Bowie scored on some fast break opportunities and were up 6-3 midway through the quarter. After a timeout, the Lady Indians spread the floor and had Kleinhans set up in the post. When a shot would go up, Kleinhans would fight to get the offensive rebound and scored on a couple of putbacks.
After that, Nocona found ways to get the ball in her hands despite the pressure and use that to the Lady Indians advantage. Several shots at the rim were set up off a double team coming at Kleinhans. She eventually hit a step back 3-pointer the defense could not do anything about to send the message home.
Nocona ended the first quarter on a 10-0 run to go up 13-6 heading into the second quarter. Bowie had trouble knocking in any shots from the perimeter. Shots inside the arc were even tougher as the Lady Indians did everything to make getting shots off inside difficult.
The game was pretty rough on both sides. While Nocona was getting to the free throw line a bit more than the Lady Rabbits, the official were letting both teams play quite. Bowie could not make up any ground as the Lady Indians led by double-digits 24-14 at halftime.
With the low scoring nature of the game, Nocona started running the clock when not pressured in the opening minutes of the third quarter. This forced the Lady Rabbits to extend their pressure out to half court and opened up the rest of the court for ball handlers Trystin Fenoglio and Kleinhans to distribute.
The Lady Indians had their best offensive quarter while Bowie continued to struggle. The Lady Rabbits got some good news despite the lead continuing to grow. Kleinhans picked up her fourth foul near the end of third quarter and was forced to sit.
While Bowie was down big 39-22 heading into the fourth quarter, if the Lady Rabbits were going to make up any ground it would be with her on the bench.
Bowie came out with a press defense. This worked a bit as the Lady Rabbits started the quarter on a 7-2 run. Bowie continued to force turnovers and extra possessions to end the game, but just could not turn all of those into points.
Nocona closed out the game with a lot of free throws, winning 49-31.
Bowie earns the third seed for the second straight season and will face another tough district runner-up from district seven. This year its Peaster played at 6 p.m. at Graham High School on Feb. 17. Nocona plays Tolar at 6:30 p.m. at Springtown also on Feb. 17.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

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Saint Jo Softball Interview

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Interview with Saint Jo softball players Jordyn O'Neal (left) and Maxey Johnson following their playoff win against Perrin-Whitt on April 24, 2024.
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Nocona softball wins final game of the season against Alvord

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The Nocona Lady Indians played their final game of the regular season with a drubbing of Alvord at home.
The Lady Indians won 11-1 after six innings due to run-rule to end their season on a positive note despite no playoffs.
The game was rescheduled from last week due to weather.
Nocona was coming off a tough loss against Muenster the previous game, but knew it had a chance against Alvord after beating the Lady Bulldogs 6-4 in the first game.
The game started slow, but the Lady Indians got the lead with one run in the first inning. Alvord answered with one run in the third inning before Nocona retook the lead and never let it go.
The Lady Indians scored three runs in the third inning, two in the fourth, three in the fifth and the final two in the sixth inning to end the game on Charity Claxton’s sacrifice bunt that scored the last run.
Nocona won 11-1.

Coach Nolan Lanham thought it was the most complete game the team had played all season.
While he is sad this year’s season is complete, he is excited about what the team accomplished this year and what it can build off of it in the coming years.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

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Baseball Roundup

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Nocona
The Nocona Indians won their first game against Chico on Tuesday night to keep their playoff hopes alive.
The Indians won 9-4 against the Dragons.
Nocona was coming into the game after a close, low-scoring series against Perrin-Whitt that saw the Indians win one game and lose another.
The Indians took an early lead with Brody Langford driving in a run on a single. Chico answered with two runs in the same inning to take back the lead 2-1.
The teams exchanged runs in the next four innings.
Nocona tied the score at 2-2 in the second inning when RJ Walker hit a sacrifice fly ball deep enough to score one run. The Dragons took the back the lead with an RBI double in the third inning to make it 3-2.
The Indians again tied the score in the fourth inning when Langford hit into a fielder’s choice out with the bases loaded. Once again, Chico retook the lead in the fifth inning, also scoring on a fielder’s choice groundout to go up 4-3.
After a scoreless sixth inning, Nocona was down to its final three outs of the game.
With two runners on base and two outs and looking at a full-count, Caden Belcher came through for the Indians with a base hit. It scored the tying run and the second runner was waived home and had a chance to score the game’s winning run. He was just tagged out for out three, but not before Nocona had tied the score at 4-4.
Chico loaded the bases up with one out in the seventh inning, but Wesley Murphey stepped up and struck out the next two batters to get out of the jam scot free and force the game into extra-innings.
Nocona was still reeling from the momentum of the last inning and it came through in the eighth inning.
With two runners on base and two outs, the Indians started a two-out rally with Wesley Murphey hitting a triple that brought both runners home to score.
Langford followed with a single that drove in one run. Following another single, Konnor Harrington hit a single that drove in another run. Following a walk that loaded the bases, a passed ball allowed Nocona to score another run.
The Indians more than doubled their seven inning total, scoring five runs and leading 9-4.
Wesley Murphey and the defense then closed the door, striking out the first batter before inducing groundouts to shortstop and second base for outs two and three to end the game.

Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers played their final regular season series in a double-header on Tuesday against Lindsay.
The bigger Knights won both games by run-rule, 12-2 after six innings and 15-2 after five innings.
Saint Jo had last played a week ago in a double-header against Muenster’s JV and varsity teams. The Panthers competed well with the JV team, but struggled more against the varsity team.
Lindsay had no JV team so Saint Jo had to play the 2A school twice and hoped it could compete.
The Knights got off to a fast start in game one, scoring seven runs in the first inning and never looking back.
The Panther defense played better from then on, never allowing Lindsay to score more than two runs in an inning and even holding the Knights scoreless in two innings.
Saint Jo was able to score in the fifth inning when the team loaded the bases and drew two walks to score two runs.
That was enough to keep the game from ending after five innings, but Lindsay scored two runs in the sixth inning to end the game early with the score 12-2.
The second game saw Lindsay score at least one run in every inning, highlighted by seven in the second inning.
Saint Jo scored two runs in the fourth inning. Charlie Evans hit an RBI double. Later he scored on the base paths after Lindsay failed to prevent a stolen base elsewhere.
The game ended after five innings with the Knights winning 15-2.

Bellevue
The Bellevue Eagles lost its final regular season game against Alvord on Tuesday.
The Bulldogs won 22-0 after four innings due to run-rule.
Bellevue knew it was going to be tough competing against a bigger school, but was hoping to compete.
Unfortunately, the Bulldogs came through and scored 14 runs in the first inning to suck any momentum from the Eagles before they had even had a chance to bat.
Bellevue prevented Alvord from scoring in the second inning, but not the third or fourth innings.
The Eagle bats did not have much luck scoring any runs as the Bulldogs won 22-0 after four innings.
Bryce Ramsey and Blake Reese got the only two hits for Bellevue in the game. Alvord racked up 15 hits, drew nine walks and were hit by five pitches which led to all of the runs.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

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