The Nocona basketball teams both won at Jacksboro on Tuesday, with one individual achieving a career milestone.
The Lady Indians won with little trouble 66-29 while the boys won a tight game 45-41.
The big news of the night for the Nocona girl’s team was senior Averee Kleinhans scoring her 3,000 career point. She came into the game needing to score 20 points and she delivered scoring 35.
She joins elite company, becoming only the second girl basketball player in Montague County history to reach the milestone. Rene Hanebutt from Bowie scored 3,186 points playing in the early 1990s while she led the Lady Rabbits to the 1995 state title.
The game was not much of a contest. The Lady Indians kept the Lady Tigers from scoring double-digits in all but the third quarter, leading 29-7 at halftime.
Besides Kleinhans Sydni Messer scored 10 points and Kylie Rose scored nine points while making three 3-pointers.
The Nocona boy’s started out the game playing great. All five starting players scored at least one basket during the first quarter while playing shutdown defense, limiting Jacksboro to only one made basket.
The Indians led 15-4 heading into the second quarter. The Tigers woke up and played a much more competitive second quarter. Nocona still were in control, but the lead was only 28-20 heading into halftime.
The third quarter saw the Indians offense hit a snag. Only an Adam Meekins 3-pointer prevented Nocona from going scoreless.
This allowed the Tigers to cut the lead to one, trailing 31-30 heading into the fourth quarter and with the momentum.
Down the stretch the Indians were able to draw a ton of free throw attempts, 14 in all. Despite only one made basket during this time, Nocona made 10 free throws, which was enough to stave off the hard charging Jacksboro team.
The Indians held on to win 45-41.
Meekins led the team with 12 points and three made 3-pointers. Landry McCasland and Ryder Oswald each scored seven points.

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