SPORTS
Lady Rabbits fall in district opener to Holliday
The Bowie Lady Rabbits started district on Friday with their toughest game of the season taking on state-ranked Holliday.
The Lady Eagles won 71-15, showing why they are so highly ranked and one of the top teams in the area regardless of classification.
The Lady Rabbits came into the game knowing the challenge would tough.
Holliday was going to be a favorite to win the district title coming into this season with Nocona’s exit after three straight second place finishes. However, the Lady Eagles became state title contenders when the best player in the Wichita Falls area, Iowa State commit Jalynn Bristow, moved to the district from Rider for her senior year.
Bowie is not a tall team for 3A, but have made up for it with tenacity and physical play. However, that can sometimes only take you so far when a team is so outsized and the other team knows how to use it to its advantage.
It was clear to see from the opening tip how physically overmatched the Lady Rabbits were across the board, outsized at almost every position.
Bowie tried to limit Bristow, who is listed at 6 foot 3 inches, from getting the ball close around the basket by using a box-and-one defense, putting a defender in tight man coverage on her while everyone else is playing a 2-2 zone with an emphasis on trying to wall off the paint.
Lady Rabbit Coach Matthew Miller was fine letting Holliday shoot from the perimeter.
It was a good strategy as the Lady Eagles only made three 3-pointers in the game, but the lack of execution from Bowie meant its defensive strategy seemed to affect Holliday little.
The Lady Eagles scored however they wanted, mostly inside the 3-point arc, and despite the Lady Rabbits best efforts, got the ball to Bristow whenever they wanted and played off of that.
Holliday scored 21 points in the first two quarters to build a big lead, but that was mostly because Bowie could not buy a basket.
The Lady Eagles came out in a full-court trapping zone style to try and use their length to bother the Lady Rabbits from initiating offense. Bowie did a good job of not committing many turnovers getting the ball up the court to set up its half court offense.
In fact, some the Lady Rabbits most successful offense came from breaking the press and getting the ball to Kayleigh Crow ahead of the defense to finish at the rim. She led the team with six points.
Unfortunately, when set up in the half court is when the length seemed to bother Bowie players as passes were tipped or misjudged due to Holliday’s players being much bigger than what they are used to.
That height also seemed to dissuade drives to the basket as possessions seemed to end when someone decided they had enough room to chuck a 3-point shot in the hole of the zone. Unfortunately, only one went in all game for the Lady Rabbits from Ziba Robbins, who finished with the second most points on the team with five.
Despite the height differential, Bowie did not get abused rebounding the basketball on either side outside of a few sequences. To be honest Holliday did not miss that much so its chances to chase offensive rebounds were limited, but the Lady Rabbits battled well in that area outside of some balls that bounced right for only the tallest players on the court.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.
It was announced last week Nocona Athletic director/football coach Blake Crutsinger is resigning from his position at the school after serving four years.
Crutsinger said now is the time for his family to make the move, with his daughter Avery graduating after spending four years at Nocona and with his son Kellar about to enter high school and wanting the same for him at another school.
“With her going off to college, she had a really good four years here and just looking at Keller heading into high school and exploring some opportunities that might be better for him, it is just time,” Crutsinger said.
Crutsinger went 19-22 overall, helping the Indians to two playoff appearances in 2022 and 2023. The team’s best season was 2023, when it went 8-2 and won the district title, the first one in 11 years for the program.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Saint Jo senior Payzlie Cervantes signed her letter of intent to play college basketball last week at Highland College in Kansas. She also played volleyball, softball and ran track at Saint Jo. “After talking with Coach Tana Coleman, I really connected with her and loved the campus vibe and direction she wants for the team,” Cervantes said. “I’m looking forward to continuing my basketball career while getting my associates degree in nursing to become a registered nurse.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Last week Montague County had five girls from Bowie and Saint Jo compete at the state tennis tournament, and one team brought back some hardware.
Sisters from Bowie, junior Heidi and freshman Willow Siebert brought back a bronze medal competing in the 3A girl’s doubles bracket.
The pair were the first people from the program to make it back to state since their half sisters, Meagan and Myah Russell, advanced nine years previously.
The Sieberts came into state as a two-seed, having finished second at the regional tournament the previous week.
The duo was ready as they blew through their first two matches. They beat a team from Hondo in the first round with the scores being 6-1, 6-1 and dominated even more in the second round against a team from Tatum, winning 6-0, 6-1.
That got them through to the second day of the tournament, but Coach Dayna Boothe was worried they had had it too easy on day one.
Playing in the semifinals, the Lady Rabbits faced a familiar foe, a team from Peaster they had beaten in the regional tournament the previous week. Unfortunately, near the end of the first set, with the Sieberts fighting to stay alive, Heidi went after a high lob and slammed into the fence. She hurt her right arm and had to play through it for the rest of the match.
They lost the match with the scores being 6-3, 6-3.
It was an all Peaster final, with the other side of the bracket producing the team that both beat the Sieberts at the regional tournament and won their second straight state title.
Still, despite the disappointment, Bowie is bringing back a bronze medal. According to Boothe, after contacting people who would know dating back to the late 1970s, it could possibly be the program’s first medals from the state tournament in tennis.
Of course, Bowie was not the only school represented. Saint Jo had Taylor Patrick competing in girl’s singles and the team of Bailie Nobile and Maxey Johnson competing in girl’s doubles in the 1A classification.
Senior Patrick was making her third appearance at the state tournament, but her first in the singles competition.
She finished third at the regional meet which meant she had a tough first round matchup against a second seed from Fort Davis.
It took everything from Patrick in a match that lasted two and a half hours. She went down in the first set 6-2, but rebounded in a tight second set to win 6-4 to force a third and final set. She had the momentum and won 6-2 to move on.
She had to summon the energy to play later that day against a fresh one-seed player from Utopia. Patrick lost 6-1, 6-1 to end her Saint Jo career. Her opponent would go on to finish second.
Juniors Johnson and Nobile were making their first appearances at the state meet after finishing second at the regional tournament. In the first round they played a tough match against a team from Marathon. It seemed evenly matched throughout, but small mistakes at inopportune times cost them throughout the match. In the end, the team lost by the scores of 6-3, 6-3.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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