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.
With summer starting up, the first few days can be spent with kids spending some time learning basketball fundamentals and having fun at either Bowie or Nocona.
For Bowie kids, both boy and girl camps will be on May 28-30 and will cost $60 per camper. School employs will have to pay $50.
There will be two sessions for younger and older kids.
For the girl’s camp, incoming 2-5th graders will make up the younger kid session which will be at the junior high from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The older session will be incoming 6-9th graders which will be at the high school from 8:30-10:30 a.m.
The boy’s camp will have incoming campers from kindergarten to 5th grade in the first session at the junior high from 8:30-10:30 a.m.
The older session for incoming 6-9th graders will be scheduled for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the high school.
Both camp registration forms can be found on the Bowie ISD Athletics Facebook page.
Walk-ups on the first day also will be available.
Any questions can be emailed to Ryan Dykes at [email protected] for the boys camp and Matthew Miller at [email protected] for the girls camp.
For Nocona kids, both boy and girl basketball camps will be on May 28-30 and will cost $50 per camper.
The girl’s basketball camp will have incoming 5-9th graders in the high school gym from 9 a.m. to noon. The younger session of incoming kindergarteners to 4th graders will be at the elementary school gym from 1-3 p.m.
The boy’s basketball camp will have oncoming 5-9th graders at the elementary school gym from 9-11 a.m. The incoming kindergarteners to 4th graders will be in the high school gym from 12:30-3:30 p.m.
For more information on how to sign up ahead of time, email Kyle Spitzer at [email protected] for the girls camp and Brody Wilson at [email protected] for the boys camp.
Gold-Burg hosted its high school awards banquet on May 16. Jayon Grace was chosen for the boy’s Iron Bear award, given to the best overall athlete by Coach Christian Healer.
To see pictures of all of the team award winners, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
Bellevue High School is planning on adding another sport next school year and a new hire was the catalyst.
Carrington Davis thought she was just going in to interview for the open elementary teacher position. During the interview, Principal Lori Shoemaker brought up her powerlifting past.
Davis, a 2019 graduate from Bowie, spent all four years in high school lifting on top of playing softball, doing well enough to make it to the state meet every year and earning fifth and second place medals her last two seasons.
Since then, while going to college at Midwestern State University, she has stayed in the powerlifting world by serving as a judge at meets the last five years.
“I think it changes your perspective on the sport,” Davis said. “When you are an athlete you know the lift, but you are kind of behind this curtain. Being a judge opens you up to all of the other things. You get to see which coaches know the sport more than others. I honestly think being a judge will help me in the competition part of it more than me having been a lifter.”
That kind of experience was what interested Shoemaker in proposing Davis head the start of the Eagles’ powerlifting program.
“We have a large group of kids who are built for powerlifting and we are excited to see what they make of it with them coming into high school,” Shoemaker said.
Davis graduated this month from MSU with her bachelors of science in education degree. She is excited to start the program up, knowing what the sport of powerlifting provided for her and her teammates in high school.
““It is an all-around beneficial sport,” Davis said. “It helps you grow in your skillset, your strength and endurance for any of the other sports you play. Also, it helps with your confidence a lot. It is an individual sport and most kids are used to team sports and maybe getting put on the backburner if they are not the best at something. Powerlifting is a sport where you can showcase your own individual skills. You get out what you put in.”
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.
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