The Bowie Lady Rabbits got a good run in with Petrolia at home on Wednesday afternoon in their first game back from the holiday break.
The Lady Rabbits won 66-58 in a relatively high scoring game that saw both teams shoot better than expected following several days off.
Bowie last played eight days before, picking up its first district win at Iowa Park. With ambitions to compete for at least second place in the district, the Lady Rabbits have two non-district games scheduled for this week before it picks back up next week.
The Lady Pirates are a solid 2A program that needs to get ready for their tough district that features three state-ranked teams in it headlined by Nocona.
Petrolia came out in a 3-2 zone and had some full-court trapping schemes as well. Bowie did a good job of navigating the press and passing around the zone to someone operating at the top of the key inside the 3-point arc and letting them make quick decisions based on what the defense opened up.
That player could drive to the basket before the defense collapsed, pass out to the perimeter for an open shot or to an open post player near the basket. The Lady Rabbits scored well and led 17-13 after the first quarter.
The second quarter saw Bowie get hot from the 3-point arc. The guard duo of Ziba Robbins and Maddie Mandela combined to make five 3-pointers in the quarter alone, scoring 15 of the team’s 17 points in that way.
Petrolia was hanging around offensively as the scrappy bunch was able to draw free throw attempts and were making the open shots the Lady Rabbits gave them for the most part.
Still, it wasn’t enough to hang with Bowie as the team led 34-25 at halftime.
The Lady Rabbits were able to keep that margin for most of the second half. The team made three more 3-pointers in the third quarter and looked to push the ball for more transition opportunies.
Still, despite all of that going right for Bowie, the Lady Pirates did a good job of just hanging around on the margins enough to keep the game from getting out of hand.
Petrolia point guard Tatem Cox was able to get where she wanted and draw contact which meant free throw opportunities all game. The Lady Pirates were in the bonus by the end of the third quarter already. The other leading scorer Addi Elledge made four 3-pointers and also shot a lot of free throw attempts in the game to keep Petrolia from getting blown away.
The closest the Lady Pirates got was cutting the lead to 59-53 midway through the fourth quarter, but Bowie was able to make sure Petrolia never got any closer.
The Lady Rabbits closed the game well, winning 66-58.

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