The Bowie Lady Rabbits won at home on Tuesday against Mineral Wells along with an individual celebrating a personal milestone.
The Lady Rabbits beat the Lady Rams 60-38, though it was closer than you would think for the first half.
Bowie came into the game off a successful 3-1 run at the tournament in S&S Consolidated.
Mineral Wells had some tall and big post players it wanted to post up and get the ball to on offense.
The Lady Rabbits had a shorter front line so they were going to make that hard for the Lady Rams.
They pressured ball handlers up the floor, not with the intention to get steals or trap them but just to give pressure before sitting back in a tight 2-3 zone. This did allow Mineral Wells the room to knock in a couple of 3-pointers in the first quarter, but it did the job.
Bowie’s offense was working in the first quarter. The Lady Rams initially wanted to sit back in a zone as well, but Maddie Mandela made three 3-pointers and scored 11 of the team’s 17 points in the quarter that made Mineral Wells change defenses.
Bowie led 17-10 and looking in control heading into the second quarter.
Mineral Wells changed its defense that initially looked like man-to-man, but was actually a triangle and two, which is aimed to take away two players. Besides Mandela, the Lady Rabbits Ziba Robbins is there other ball handler they rely on to score.
This extra attention caused confusion for Bowie’s offense for most of the quarter. Open looks from the outside were not being taken as players seemed to drive the lane before kicking it back out again to another open player who would repeat until that moment where the Lady Rabbits had that one-step-ahead advantage on the defense was lost and the possession reset.
Bowie scored only nine points in the quarter which allowed the Lady Rams to come back and cut the lead to 26-22 heading into halftime.
Even with a whole halftime to adjust to the defense, the opening three minutes of the second half still saw the Lady Rabbits struggle which allowed Mineral Wells to take its first lead 29-28.
It looked like all momentum had slipped away from Bowie’s good start and something needed to change.
After a time out, the adjustments seemed to sink in on offense while the pressure picked up on defense. The increased pressure forced more turnovers which sparked some chances to score in transition for the Lady Rabbits.
After scoring only one field goal in the second quarter, Mandela bounced back and scored seven points in the third quarter, but the team got some scoring from some bench players. Emily Cueva scored seven points in the quarter after playing little in the first half. Maycie Metzler knocked in a 3-pointer as well.
Despite the tough start to the second half, the rest of the game saw Bowie running away with it. The Lady Rabbits outscored the Lady Rams 19-8 in the third quarter and led 45-30 heading into the final period.
The lead eventually grew so big Bowie was able to play all of its players off the bench with no let down for large chunks of the fourth quarter.
The full-court pressure wore on the Lady Ram ball handlers and as the Lady Rabbit lead ballooned up, the turnovers from Mineral Wells got worse and worse.
Bowie won 60-38, erasing many of the memories of the Lady Rabbits being down at the beginning of the third quarter.

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