SPORTS
Nocona girls win area; Saint Jo, Bellevue girls season ends
Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians continued their playoff run and undefeated streak by beating Valley Mills on Thursday night in the area round.
The Lady Indians won with little drama 78-44 when it came to the final score, but it did not start that way.
Nocona came in as heavy favorites with the undefeated record on the season. Valley Mills finished second in its district, losing only to district champion Hamilton who twice lost the same night to a Windthorst team the Lady Indians have beaten three times this season.
Still, the Lady Eagles were not just going to lay down against Nocona and while the Lady Indians youth have not blinked so far this season, it doesn’t mean they won’t with the stakes now being the highest.
That must explain the first quarter where the game was competitive throughout and Valley Mills was up 16-13 heading into the second quarter.
“I thought we came out flat in the first quarter,” Kyle Spitzer said. “Defensively we were not in the spots we needed to be in.”
Those issues got ironed out and then it was another Nocona basketball game. Valley Mills scored only nine points in each of the next two quarters and 10 in the last one.
Meanwhile, Nocona’s offense took off, running in transition and making 3-pointers off of drives to the basket in the halfcourt. The Lady Indians scored 25, 22 and 18 points in the final quarters as they grabbed the lead and made it grow throughout the game until the final buzzer sounded.
The first quarter memories disappeared as Nocona won with little issue 78-44.
Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers fell short against state-ranked Dodd City on Thursday night.
The Lady Hornets won 65-28 against the young Lady Panthers team.
Dodd City came in as favorites, rated among the top 10 in the state in 1A according to the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches poll.
It was a matching of styles as both teams came in wanting to aggressively full court press on defense and push the ball in transition.
It was physical throughout and just because a girl hit the floor hard did not always guarantee a foul being called as the ball was sprinted up and down the floor.
Dodd City showed having more experience and skill, bottling up Saint Jo’s two ball handlers into backcourt turnovers at times and slicing through the Lady Panthers zone to open 3-point shooters who made nine on the night.
Saint Jo competed well in the first quarter, but the better shooting from Dodd City meant the Lady Hornets were up 23-10.
Unfortunately for the Lady Panthers, that would be a quarter high for them as they just got wore down by Dodd City’s press. The Lady Hornets were constantly subbing in fresh players while Saint Jo did not have that luxury do to some injuries later in the season.
The foul calls did start to pick up on both sides in the second half and the Lady Panthers did go 11-20 at the free throw line.
Still, it was not enough to get Saint Jo back into the game offensively as the Lady Hornets scoring pace kept up until the fourth quarter.
The Lady Panthers held them to only five points to end the game, but did not do much better scoring one point as the press did not let up until the final seconds of the game.
Dodd City won 65-28.
Bellevue
The Bellevue Lady Eagles season came to an end on Tuesday night in the bi-district round against Throckmorton.
The Lady Greyhounds won handidly against the young Lady Eagles 62-19 to end their season.
Still, it was a success for a team that came into the season with a lot of youth. While last year’s team struggled with no bench depth, this year’s team had it in spades but at the cost of youthful inexperience.
Those growing pains had to be gone throughout the season and the team had some difficult moments.
Still, Bellevue got its self together during district play enough to not just sneak into the playoffs, but finish third in a tough, top heavy district which had several good teams battling for the last two spots.
The Lady Eagles won some close games to earn the third spot and with a majority of the team being underclassmen, this could just be the first step up in the ladder back to competing for a district title in a few years.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
Nocona
The Nocona Indians picked up dominant wins against Chico in their series against the Dragons last week.
The Indians won both games 11-0 by run-rule after five innings to get their first district wins of the season.
Nocona was coming off losing both games against Lindsay the previous week in its first district series and bounced back in a big way.
In the first game at home last week, the Indians scored six runs in the first inning and five in the third inning which proved to be all the offense they needed.
Kutter Cabrera led the team with three RBIs while Miller Jentry was second with two RBIs. The team finished with nine hits and drew eight walks.
On the mound, Walker Murphey pitched a shut out while striking out seven and allowing three hits. Defensively, the team committed one fielding error.
The second game saw Nocona score all of its runs in the first three innings, highlighted by scoring six runs in the second inning.
Murphey hit a three-run home run to lead the team while Brody Langford and Landon Fatheree each had two RBIs.
On the mound RJ Walker had a big day, throwing a perfect four innings which means he did not allow a hit or walk anyone. He also struck out eight batters, which put him over 100 career strikeouts in high school. The defense committed no fielding errors.
Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Panthers lost their series against Bryson last week.
The first game was a close 3-0 loss, but the second game was 11-0, done after four and half innings due to run-rule.
The Panthers were coming off close losses to Perrin-Whitt from the previous week. They were hoping they could turn their fortune around playing another 1A program.
Unfortunately in the first game, the Cowboys got off to a good start, scoring three runs in the first inning, with two coming with two outs due to an error and a dropped third strike.
Saint Jo’s pitching and defense tightened up after that to not allow another run in the final six innings. Unfortunately, the Panthers had only two hits and four base runners all game as they lost the close game 3-0.
Charlie Evans and Rylan Forrest had the only two hits for Saint Jo in the game as the team struck out 18 times. Trent Gaston ended the game allowing three runs (one earned) on six hits while striking out five batters and walking two in six innings of work. The defense committed five fielding errors.
Unfortunately, things did not go as well several days later in game two. Bryson scored three runs in both the first and second innings before scoring five runs in the third inning. Saint Jo was not able to get a hit and drew two walks in the game.
The Panther defense committed six fielding errors which led to only three of the 11 runs given up were earned by the pitching staff who gave up five hits, walked six and hit four batters.
Bellevue
The Bellevue Eagles played Perrin-Whitt last week in a series.
The Pirates won the first game 11-1 by run-rule and the second game score was not updated on Game Changer.
The Eagles were coming off one-sided losses to Bryson the previous week in their first district series and was hoping to play better.
Bellevue did get out to an early lead in the first inning. River Trail hit an RBI single in the top of the first inning to go up 1-0, which proved to be the highlight of the game.
Perrin-Whitt scored three runs in the first inning, one in the second inning, two in the fourth inning and five in the fifth inning to win 11-1.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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