SPORTS
Saint Jo girls open district against Bellevue with a win
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers started district play on Tuesday night with a win at Bellevue.
The Lady Panthers won 55-49 in a close game where two stylistically similar teams with playoff aspirations competed.
Saint Jo came into district play fresh off a super tough tournament at Nocona against mostly bigger schools. The Lady Panthers also were a little beat up with one starter out for the game and several still feeling the effects.
Nevertheless, Saint Jo returns the majority of its team that finished second in district last year and is looking to challenge for the district title.
The Lady Eagles are hoping to turn over a new leaf after the mostly led freshman group last year missed the playoffs for the first time in several seasons. A year of growth and also some tough competition during pre-district has Bellevue not only expecting the playoffs again, but possibly at the district title.
Both teams employ similar but different full-court, zone style press/trap defenses. The goal is to force turnovers and get chances in transition to score. When that isn’t there both teams like to push the ball anyway and look for quick 3-pointers or drive-and-kick chances.
Despite the expectations, the pace was not lightning quick all of the time. Both teams tried to be methodical breaking the press instead of trying to sprint through and put up the first open shot they got. There were holes in both teams’ 3-2 zone defense and each coach was trying to attack them with the personnel they had.
Saint Jo took a narrow lead 15-11 at the end of the first quarter. Bellevue’s points mostly came on knocking down open 3-pointers. The Lady Panthers were mixing up the approach and earned more free throw attempts.
The Lady Eagles varied their approach in the second quarter, getting post player Callie Martin more involved and earning some free throw attempts as well which also put Saint Jo’s shortened bench to the test.
The Lady Panthers offense started to have a bit more trouble against Bellevue’s press that lasted the rest of the game. While the turnovers ramped up for Saint Jo, they usually were not the type that turned into transition opportunities on a regular basis.
Still, Saint Jo held onto its narrow lead, even after giving it up midway through the second quarter. The Lady Panthers compensated by making four 3-pointers and scoring on some high percentage shots near the rim.
After the highest scoring quarter for both teams as they each scored 18 points, Saint Jo was ahead 33-29 at halftime.
The Lady Panthers had some trouble in the third quarter as one of their ball handlers had to sit out the majority of time with foul trouble. Also, in the final three minutes of the quarter, do everything player Taylor Patrick took a tumble that had her take a rest while getting her head back on straight.
While Bellevue continued to attack in similar ways as it did in the third quarter, Saint Jo was carried offensively by Kyler Dunn. She scored all 14 of the team’s points in the quarter as she earned eight free throw attempts and made two 3-pointers.
The Lady Panthers lead grew by one heading into the fourth quarter up 47-42.
The pace was slowed down by Saint Jo to try and prevent the Lady Eagle’s chances to come back. Midway through, the Lady Panthers had their biggest lead of the game 54-45 and just tried to stall and earn free throws.
While Bellevue got lucky and Saint Jo went 1-6 from the free throw line in the quarter, the Lady Eagles could not get enough of their limited shots to go down late to make up the difference.
The Lady Panthers won 55-49.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
The Red River High School Bass Club competed this past weekend, May 31 – June 1, at the State Tournament on Lake Conroe for the two-day tournament.
Two of the teams from Montague County traveled south to try their best at the culmination of the year for the state title. Teams were able to pre-fish on Friday before the Saturday and Sunday competition. On Friday, there was a flipping contest for the youth and Cooper Johnson won third overall and won a $500 scholarship and an Academy gift card.
The club’s two teams who competed were Lane Smith/Colt Henry with boat captain Jimmy Smith. The team placed 63rd with a total of 16.22 pounds. The second team of Cooper Johnson/Corbyn Patton and boat captain Jayson Toerck placed 169th with a total weight of 2.29 pounds.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
The Maskat Shrine Oil Bowl is this week on June 6-7 and graduating athletes from Bowie, Nocona and Saint Jo are confirmed to be playing.
In total, seven athletes from Bowie, five from Nocona and three from Saint Jo are planning to play in the all-star games this week. Nocona also will have a pair of coaches participating as well.
The girl’s basketball game kicks off events on June 6, scheduled for 6 p.m. at Wichita Falls Memorial High School. In the game, the east team will have Nocona players Avery Crutsinger, Meg Meekins and Reagan Phipps playing while Kyler Spitzer and Clayton Brown coach them one last time.
On the west team, Saint Jo’s Payzlie Cervantes is confirmed to be playing.
The boy’s basketball game is scheduled to follow at 7:30 p.m. On the east team, Bowie’s Boston Farris and Nocona’s Jose Gomez Jr. will be playing.
On June 7, the volleyball games are scheduled to start at 4 p.m. with the small school game. On the west team, Nocona’s Kaygan Stone and Saint Jo’s Taylor Patrick are confirmed to play. On the east team, Saint Jo’s Aubrey Morman will get to play her teammate.
There are no local athletes confirmed to be playing in the big school volleyball game.
The final event is the football game, scheduled for 7:30 p.m. at Memorial Stadium. It is an all Bowie affair with six players confirmed to be playing for the east team: Justin Clark, Jorge De Leon, Hunter Fluitt and Braden Rhyne, Preacher Chambers and Moh Azouak.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
Nocona Independent School District officials looked inward for a new athletic director/head football coach, selecting Jeff Hill for the position.
Hill, who served last year as Nocona football’s offensive coordinator and also led the softball program to the playoffs for the first time in a while as its head coach, was upgraded to the role.
This came on the heels of former Athletic Director Blake Crutsinger, who served in the role the last four years, resigned in May.
For Hill, the choice to apply for the position was a no brainer. His one year in Nocona had impressed upon him and his wife that it was the place they would like to be long term.
“I’m looking for a town to raise my kids in and Nocona has treated my family really well,” Hill said. “There are some really good people. The kids work hard. Everything I am looking for in a hometown is right here in Nocona and I want to try and make it as best as it can be, especially through athletics.”
Before Nocona, Hill served as the athletic director at S&S Consolidated while also spending time at Hebron and Whitewright in his coaching career.
Hill expresses great respect for the departing Crutsinger and besides changing a few small things in how he personally wants to do things, he is not trying to come in with a sweeping restructuring of the whole athletic department.
The program had five of its six team sports make the playoffs, with volleyball playing in the regional final and the girl’s basketball team winning the state championship.
That along with two athletes competing at the state championship in cross country and track with one earning a gold medal, it was one of the more successful school years in athletic program history.
“Coach Crutsinger was awesome and did a great job so honestly just little tweaks, a little bit of structure and cohesion amongst the coaching staff between boys and girls,” Hill said. “I hope to keep the winning tradition going overall in the athletic department.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekly edition of the Bowie News.
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