SPORTS

Girls Roundup

Published

5 months ago

12/20/2023

Saint Jo
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers won a big early district game against defending district champs Slidell on Friday.
The Lady Panthers won 49-46 at home against the Lady Greyhounds as they aim to try and win a district title for the first time in a long time.
Saint Jo was playing from behind for most of the game as the team struggled to score inside against Slidell’s 2-3 zone.
Still, the Lady Panthers executed in some areas where they excel. Saint Jo was able to force turnovers and turn them into points in transition with its press defense and also made some good 3-pointers.
It wasn’t until late in the fourth quarter the Lady Panthers were able tie up the score and then later made some key free throws that put them ahead for good to win 49-46.

Nocona
The Nocona Lady Indians suffered their first loss of the season against the defending 4A state champion Glen Rose on Friday night.
The Lady Indians lost 69-32 against the Lady Tigers in their most lopsided loss in several seasons.
Nocona knew it was going to be tough. In one of the few times this season where the Lady Indians would be the underdogs, it was for good reason.
Glen Rose won last year’s 4A state title and only lost one game along the way.
This year, while the Lady Tigers have already dropped two games, they came against a 6A Oklahoma school Putnam City West and a private school in Dallas called Legion Preparatory.
The Lady Indians big achilles heel is their lack of size inside, but the team gets around it by clogging up the paint with bodies against certain teams and scrappy play on defense while playing fast on offense.
Glen Rose had the size advantage, which was nothing new as Nocona is not opposed to playing some zone and daring teams to shoot against tough contests from 3-point range.
Unfortunately, the Lady Tigers were good enough to play around that while also having their press defense really get to the Lady Indian ball handlers like most teams never do.
Glen Rose led 24-13 after the first quarter, but that would be the highlight of Nocona’s offensive day.
The usually high scoring Lady Indians failed to score in double-digits in any of the final three quarters.
The Lady Tigers’ offense only slowed down a little bit, but not much as their lead grew and grew as the game went.
It was the type of one-sided beat down Nocona has not suffered in almost any game under Coach Kyle Spitzer’s time in the last six seasons as Glen Rose won 69-32.
Skyler Smith led the team with 10 points and four rebounds while Meg Meekins was second with eight points and three assists.

Forestburg vs Bellevue
The Forestburg Lady Horns won a close district game at home on Friday against Bellevue.
The Lady Horns won 63-57 against the Lady Eagles in a game that saw Bellevue nearly steal it away in the second half.
Forestburg came into the game after opening district with a win against Prairie Valley.
The Lady Eagles lost a close game against Saint Jo and were looking for their first district win.
With both teams featuring many underclassman and the style that featured full-court pressing defenses, the game had periods of fast play along with long scoring droughts.
The first quarter saw the score locked at 10-10. Then both teams could not miss in the fast paced second quarter. Forestburg scored 33 points while Bellevue scored 25 as the Lady Horns led 43-35 at halftime.
The third quarter then saw both teams combine to score only 11 points. The Lady Horns all of a sudden could not make a basket and scored only two points which allowed Bellevue to cut the lead down to one point 45-44 heading into the final period.
The pace picked back up again and Forestburg outscored the Lady Eagles 18-13 to win 63-57.
Brenna Briles led the Lady Horns with 21 points, nine rebounds, seven steals and six assists. Lili Cisneros was second with 16 points while Braylee Briles added 10 points.
For Bellevue, Brylie Hager led the team with 17 points while Callie Martin was second with 16 points and Cirstin Allen scored 10 points.

Missing scores
Did not receive scores from Gold-Burg’s coach. Prairie Valley had a bye-game late last week.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.

SPORTS

District awards for 1A released

Published

23 hours ago

05/18/2024

bowienews

Bellevue’s Bryce Ramsey was named his district’s newcomer of the year.

With the baseball and softball seasons over for the area 1A schools, district awards have been released.
Listed below are those earned honors on the field and in the classroom for Saint Jo and Bellevue.

Softball
Saint Jo
Honorable mention
Utility player: Taylor Patrick; Catcher: Jordyn O’Neal

Baseball
Superlatives
Offensive MVP: Devin Stewart, Saint Jo
Newcomer of the Year: Bryce Ramsey, Bellevue

Pitcher: Trent Gaston, Saint Jo
Outfielder: Jayden Curry, Saint Jo

Second team
Pitcher: Charlie Barclay, Saint Jo
Infielder: Brycen Bancroft, Bellevue; Sam Martin, Saint Jo
Outfielder: Rylan Forrester, Saint Jo
Catcher: Charlie Evans, Saint Jo
Utility: Logan Hoover, Saint Jo
DH: Amzy Barclay, Saint Jo

Honorable mention
Cody Gaston, Saint Jo; Xander Joyner, Saint Jo

To see academic awards from Saint Jo players, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.

SPORTS

Forestburg coach retiring

Published

23 hours ago

05/18/2024

bowienews

Forestburg boys basketball coach Eldon Van Hooser helped lead the program to its first playoff win in nine years in his last year coaching.

Eldon Van Hooser is leaving Forestburg better than he found it.
The head boy’s basketball coach is retiring after more than 30 years, spending the last five at Forestburg.
Van Hooser did not come to this decision because of a lack of fire or feeling tired after decades in the profession. He had to for family reasons.
“My wife has MS (multiple sclerosis) and it’s a disease where you have trouble standing and walking and she needs help,” Van Hooser said. “I am able to so I am going to step away from teaching and coaching to be there for her.”
Van Hooser was hired in 2019. Along with being the boy’s basketball coach, he also was the football team’s defensive coordinator.
There were some lean years for Forestburg on the boy’s athletic side, with numbers being low and the available athletes being mostly underclassmen.
For two years, the Longhorns’ boy’s basketball team won few games and one of those seasons saw the team field five players on the high school team.
“One of those years we had COVID-19 and the other we had five kids,” Van Hooser said. “It was very rough. After that we worked with the kids and we had a good freshman group coming up. Next year they are going to be seniors.”
That group has helped to turn the program around. Last year the young Longhorns team contested for a playoff spot and just barely missed it finishing fifth in the district.
This season, that same group took a leap and finished second in district with a record of 7-5.
Despite losing its last two regular season games in dramatic fashion heading into the playoffs, the team stepped up in the bi-district game.
Playing against an athletic Newcastle team, Forestburg led for most of the game.
Unfortunately, the previous game against Bellevue saw the Longhorn team blow the lead late in the fourth quarter against a hard pressing style team and they were suffering the same fate against the Bobcats down the stretch.
Fortunately, Forestburg held on just enough to win 53-46. It was the first boy’s basketball playoff win in nine years for Forestburg.
“It was huge for our program,” Van Hooser said. “This new year we will have new goals. The new coach will have some goals of his own, but I set some for the team and think that we have come a long way.”

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

SPORTS

Bowie Sports Banquet

Published

4 days ago

05/15/2024

bowienews

The Bowie sports banquets was on Monday night. Olivia Gill and Tucker Jones were named Jackrabbit and Lady Rabbit of the year. Pick up the mid-week paper for all of the sports team awards and pictures.