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Lady Panthers win area round playoff game against Avinger
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers won their area playoff game on Friday night against Avinger to keep their season alive for one more game.
The Lady Panthers easily took care of the Lady Indians 54-21, overwhelming the undermanned Avinger team as the game went along.
Saint Jo came into the game with a lot of momentum after beating Perrin-Whitt earlier in the week in the bi-district playoff game with little trouble.
The biggest thing coming into the game against the Lady Indians was how much was unknown. Coach Daniel Lindenborn was able to find only a little bit of film of his opponent during the two days of preparation and some were out of date.
It was only when the team showed up did the Lady Panthers see that not only was Avinger down one key player they had seen on film, but had only five players total.
Saint Jo knew from the film it would have to contain one explosively athletic player and another guard who could shoot 3-pointers well.
The fact the Lady Indians had several tall players also meant Saint Jo was outsized by average as well and made driving to the basket tough at times.
Still, the Lady Panthers had the exact style of play that is tough for a team with no substitutions.
Saint Jo plays a physical full-court press defense as its base and early on was having success creating turnovers in the backcourt for some transition offense opportunities.
It took a little bit for the Lady Panthers to start capitalizing on these chances, but were leading 14-4 after six minutes.
Avinger came back in the final two minutes, knocking in two 3-pointers and cutting the lead to 14-12 heading into the second quarter.
However that would be the most energetic the Lady Indians were in the game as scoring became tougher in the final three quarters against Saint Jo’s constant pressure.
The Lady Panthers scored enough while limiting Avinger to only five points to extend their lead to 25-17 at halftime.
The third quarter saw Saint Jo break the game open with its most successful offensive run in the game.
The Lady Panthers made three 3-pointers and had five players make at least one basket as they scored 18 points.
This seemed to demoralize the Lady Indians energy, which was already lacking due to fatigue as they scored only four points in response.
Saint Jo was in control up 43-21 heading into the final period. Not needing to do much with Avinger players throwing up desperate shots and a big lead in hand, the Lady Panthers coasted in the fourth quarter while giving up no points on defense.
Saint Jo won 54-21.
Two former Bowie boy’s golf members played in the PGA University Championship on Nov. 12-13. (L-R) Cy Egenbacher and Imanol Walker are both in the Sam Houston University PGA Golf Managerment program. The team finished 16th overall. Egenbacher shot 168 during the two rounds and finished tied for 67th. Walker shot 180 and finished 84th. The tournament is a fun one for univesities that have PGA Golf Management programs, which is for individuals who want to work in the golf industry after graduation.
The Saint Jo Lady Panthers came up short at the regional final for the third straight season, one game away from state, on Saturday at the regional tournament in Midlothian.
The Lady Panthers beat Evant in straight sets 3-0 on Friday to reach the final game against Harrold which they lost 3-0.
Saint Jo knew before the season even started it would likely come to this big challenge, but it still had to go through all the steps to get there.
The Panthers reached the regional finals the previous two seasons, losing both times to eventual state champion Blum.
With district realignment meant a new region so a rematch with a Blum program that had graduated several key players from those teams would have to wait until state possibly.
Instead, a showdown against last year’s state runner-up Harrold was forecast in the regional final.
With the team having six seniors, with five of them having been on varsity since they were freshman, it was this year or bust for Saint Jo.
First, the Lady Panthers had to beat Evant. The Lady Elks leaned heavily on a big front court player. When she rotated to the back row, Evant showed almost no net resistance which meant Saint Jo hitters had free reign during that time.
The Lady Panthers won each set pretty easily, with the scores being 25-17, 25-17 and 25-19.
This set up the match with Harrold the team had been anticipating. The Lady Hornets had been at or near the top of the state standings since the beginning of the season.
Harrold had so much respect it had even played bigger local schools this season, beating Bowie in straight sets and Nocona in five sets during its pre-district schedule.
The two teams had met earlier in the season when the Lady Hornets attended Saint Jo’s hosted tournament. The two teams met in the tournament championship where Harrold won 2-1.
Still, with the tournament format being a best of three instead of five and the match after playing an exhausting schedule of five matches the previous two days, that result was not gospel, especially two months later.
The challenge is Harrold had multiple big hitters at the net, which is a big deal since most 1A teams are lucky to have one or two, which meant constant pressure on Saint Jo’s defense.
This also meant the Lady Panthers constantly had to find ways to attack the Lady Hornet defense as well or it would face strong hit after strong hit which was unsustainable for any team.
The first set saw the Lady Hornets get out to a good start before the Lady Panthers rallied back and took a little lead 8-7. Unfortunately, it started turn from there.
Harrold had some good runs from the service line that Saint Jo struggled to make much offense out of and led to the Lady Hornets pulling away. Harrold won 4-1 to get the lead to 11-9 and then extended it to 14-11, 17-13. Another 4-1 run and the Lady Hornets could smell the end of the first set coming.
The Lady Hornets won 25-17 to take the lead 1-0.
Saint Jo needed to bounce back, but unfortunately never got anything going in set two.
Harrold led 4-1 and then 8-2. The Lady Panthers would have needed a huge run at some point from the service line to get back into the set, but it never came as the Lady Hornets lead grew more and more.
Harrold took set two 25-13 to go up 2-0 and had all of the momentum.
Saint Jo had its back against the wall, knowing the only option was to hope for a comeback that would lead to a fifth set, but to get there it needed to win set three.
The Lady Panthers initially started on the right foot. After falling being 4-1 to start the previous two sets, it was Saint Jo that started well up 4-1. Unfortunately, the Lady Hornets came roaring back, going on an 8-2 run as it led 9-6, then 12-8 and 15-10.
It looked like it was heading towards a similar place as set one with Harrold slowly running away with the set before the Lady Panthers made one last gasp.
Saint Jo eventually cut the lead down to one point, trailing 20-19 as the set entered the final stretch and the Lady Panthers had their best momentum of the match.
Unfortunately, it was Harrold that was able to close the set out with momentum, earning the final five points to win 25-19 and the match 3-0.
To read the full story, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News. For pictures from Friday’s match, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870620&T=1
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