The Nocona Indians easily won their bi-district playoff game against Haskell on Monday night in Olney.
Nocona won 60-38, starting out hot and never looking back despite cooling off as the game went along.
Nocona came into the game as favorites after going through district undefeated for its second straight district title and ranked ninth in the state in 2A according to the most recent Texas Association of Basketball Coaches poll.
Haskell was a fourth seed who came into the game and both wanted to play fast but also tried to post up its big, but not tall, post players on the block.
With Nocona not having elite height or size on its roster, it was the biggest defensive concern.
Haskell came out with a full-court press and played in a 3-2 zone on defense, trying to pressure the ball and force the action since the team did not have great height at the rim either.
Nocona was able to handle the press with little trouble all night, with few turnovers coming from overwhelming pressure. The team early on made several 3-pointers, dicing up Haskell’s zone defense with sharp passes that created open looks.
Nocona led 12-2 after four minutes and Haskell was never able to make it any closer. Nocona continued on and extended the lead to 21-6 at the end of the first quarter as the team made five 3-pointers.
Nocona was playing straight man-to-man defense, but had players sagged off into the paint to try and prevent clean passes into the player or ready to rotate when passes did get through. Haskell was not able to make many 3-pointers on the night, finishing with only three, to make Nocona pay for sagging off its players off the ball on defense.
Haskell was able to get the ball inside enough and played with energy to grab offensive rebounds, especially early on, to score better in the final three quarters.
Nocona’s hot 3-point shooting cooled off as the team made only one more for the rest of the game. However, Nocona was still able to score a bit more points than Haskell almost every quarter by driving into the lane and hitting cutters at the basket for uncontested layups.
Nocona led 34-16 at halftime and 49-27 after three quarters before eventually winning 60-38.

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