The Bowie Lady Rabbits lost a frustrating game in their rematch against Holliday at home on Tuesday night.
The Lady Eagles came out on top 60-54 in a game where the Lady Rabbits had plenty of chances to steal the win.
Bowie came into the game after getting Friday off and after wrapping up the first round of district play in third place with a 4-2 record. One of those two losses came against Holliday, that had just dropped its first district game at Nocona the previous game. The Lady Eagles were also without one of their key players due to injury.
The first game between the teams back in December saw the game played pretty even save for one two minutes stretch before halftime where Holliday went on an 11-0 run before halftime.
Despite facing a size disadvantage, the Lady Rabbits knew they could play with the Lady Eagles if they could just avoid giving up a bad stretch.
Unfortunately, that was how the game started for Bowie. Playing in a 2-3 zone to try and prevent Holliday from using its size to score around the basket, the Lady Eagles bombed away from the 3-point range and made four in the first quarter.
Holliday built its lead to 16-3 in the first four minutes, another double-digit hole the Lady Rabbits were hoping to avoid. Bowie switched up its defense to man-to-man after that to avoid giving up open 3-point shots and did better the rest of the game.
The Lady Rabbits got going offensively thanks to Taygon Jones and Maddie Mandela putting their heads down, getting in the lane and drawing free throw attempts. The referees were quick on the whistle for both teams as both picked up seven fouls in the first quarter alone. Bowie did a better job of taking advantage of that by drawing more free throws against the physical Lady Eagles.
Unfortunately, it was not the best free throw shooting day for the Lady Rabbits. It was enough to slow the game down and disrupt Holliday’s momentum to cut the lead to 22-11 heading into the second quarter.
Foul trouble became an issue for both teams in the second quarter. It was turning the game into a free throw shooting contest with both teams already in the bonus. Unfortunately for Bowie, despite doing a better job of drawing free throws the team continued to struggle from the line.
On the flip side, with the Lady Rabbits only playing eight girls, the team tried desperately not to let players get too many fouls which was not as worrisome for a Lady Eagles’ team that had more players suited out.
Still, Bowie did a good job of closing the lead down to single-digits with eight points scored from Jones and a 3-pointer from Haley Webb making the score 30-23 at halftime.
The third quarter saw both teams score quite a bit as the foul calls were cut down. The Lady Rabbits seemed to never be able to get any closer than six points from Holliday as the Lady Eagles always had an answer for them. Bowie did try to turn up the pace by bringing full-court pressure and traps into the equation with some success near the end of the quarter.
Holliday still led 49-43 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Lady Eagles slowed the pace down and made the Lady Rabbits pay with good offense to build a 60-48 lead with a little more than three minutes to play. Thanks to poor free throw shooting from Holliday down the stretch, Bowie was able to scrape back into the game to make the lead within reach.
Time was running out and a turnover with seven seconds left made a miracle comeback impossible as the Lady Eagles won 60-54.

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