After years of local domination, the Nocona Lady Indians are finally going to the basketball state tournament this week after winning the 2A region II title on Saturday at McKinney North.
The Lady Indians got redemption, beating Lipan 50-41, the defending state champions who beat Nocona last year in the same game. The Lady Indians also beat Muenster the day before 58-43.
Nocona came into the tournament feeling confident, but knew it was not going to be easy. Last year the team played Muenster twice and both games were low-scoring and competitive with the Lady Indians winning by only four and five points.
The first quarter of last year’s game in the regional tournament infamously ended with Nocona leading 1-0.
The Lady Hornets had a similar record and ranking heading into the semifinal game this year, with 29 wins and ranked 16th in the state in 2A according to the Texas Association of Basketball Coaches poll and 12th according to Max Preps.
Nocona knew it was going to be tough despite being favorites to win again against a Muenster team that was seeking redemption for last year.
The Lady Hornets played a deliberate and patient offensive game, with much off-ball movement coming off of screens. Nocona opted to play man-to-man defense, so players had to navigate the many screens for sometimes a full minute. Many Lady Indians even took to barreling through some screens to try and keep attached to players.
Muenster played a similar style of defense, with nothing fancy except straight up man-to-man.
The first quarter was a little slow, but nothing compared to last year’s slugfest as Nocona led 8-7.
“Their urgency and defense makes it tough,” Coach Kyle Spitzer said. “When we are on offense it just seems like it is so hard to score sometimes.”
The biggest thing to happen was the Lady Indians Skyler Smith got into foul trouble, picking up two fouls in the final minute which pushed her to the bench.
Muenster found its most successful offense hunting matchups for big, but not tall, player Anna Kay Hennigan who used her size and skill to score on drives to the basket. With Smith out, Nocona was more vulnerable to these disadvantage matchups.
Luckily, the Lady Indians still had their leading scorer Meg Meekins to lead them and the Lady Hornets had no answer. Meekins had scored six points in the first quarter and then scored 10 in the second quarter.
This helped cover as Smith had to go back to the bench midway through the quarter as she picked up her third foul.
Nocona led 25-17 at halftime.
For most of the third quarter the Lady Indians had trouble scoring after two quick baskets in the first two minutes. Muenster was hanging around and Nocona got more bad news when Smith picked up her fourth foul with three minutes left to play in the quarter.
With the Lady Hornets trailing by six points they were hoping they could change the momentum of the game.
Again, there was too much Meekins for Muenster to handle. She scored eight of her team’s 15 points in the quarter and helped spark a 10-6 run to end quarter. Nocona led by double-digits heading into the fourth quarter, up 40-30.
Give the Lady Indians a lead in the final period and it has been death for opponents.
While it almost back fired in their previous game against Cisco, the scaling back of Nocona’s offense to run some clock with good free throw shooters and ball handlers on the court has made it hard for opponents to come back against the Lady Indians.
Still, the Lady Hornets gave it their best shot. Muenster went on a 10-2 run in about a two minute sequence to cut the lead down to 49-43 with 2:14 left to play.
Smith came back in and she made up for her time sitting as she was sent to the free throw line four times.
She sunk all eight of her attempts to help Nocona pull away for good as the Lady Hornets offense ran out of gas. Aubree Kleinhans added one more free throw to give the Lady Indians their final point as Nocona won by the comfortable margin 58-43.

To read the full story that includes the recap against Lipan in the regional final, pick up a copy of the mid-week edition of the Bowie News.