The Bowie Jackrabbits picked up their biggest profile win of the short season so far on Tuesday with an overtime win against Slidell.
The Jackrabbits won 43-40 against the Greyhounds, holding on just enough in the overtime period to get the win against the state-ranked team.
Bowie was coming off a disappointing loss last week to Bells more than a week ago before the holiday break. The Jackrabbits had a heck of test for themselves waiting after several off days.
Slidell, the program that had won the district title against all of the Montague County 1A teams for nearly a decade, is looking to keep results the same even as it moves up to 2A.
The Greyhounds are ranked 10th in the state in 2A according to the most recent Texas Association of Basketball Coaches poll.
Also, Slidell is the definition of a full-court press team that goes a hundred miles per hour almost all of the time.
With both teams coming off a week long break, conditioning was about to be tested.
The Jackrabbits had the height and length advantage in the front court and used that to their advantage on defense in a half court setting.
The Greyhounds were looking to get to the rim on drives and routinely were thwarted by Bowie’s size.
The Jackrabbit offense wanted to be methodical in their approach. Slidell wanted to speed the game up to suit its pace of play. Bowie will look for opportunities to push, but did not want to fall into the trap of trying to match the Greyhounds.
The Jackrabbits scored inside and made some free throws as they led 9-4 after the first quarter and looked to be controlling the game.
Slidell was able to turn things around with a quick score in the second quarter, which allowed it to get into its press defense and change the pace of the game.
Bowie struggled to routinely break the press, committing several turnovers by not being able to cross half court in 10 seconds.
The Greyhounds were led by their leading scorer in the period, who scored eight of their 10 points, all inside the arc.
The Jackrabbits were not having much luck scoring a ton either while dealing with the pressure, making only two baskets.
The Greyhounds took the lead and while Bowie only trailed 16-14 at halftime, it seemed like Slidell grabbed the momentum and were on the verge of breaking things open at any time.
The Jackrabbits answered the bell and came out in the third quarter ready to establish control again. It was easily Bowie’s best stretch of offensive play, doubling its first half total with 14 points as five different players made at least one basket.
The Jackrabbit defense continued to make things tough for the Greyhounds with less chances to push the ball in transition. Still, after only getting to the free throw line twice in the first half, Slidell was starting to earn trips to the charity stripe much more starting in the third quarter.
Bowie still led 28-23 heading into the fourth quarter, but the Greyhounds were going to give up.
The Jackrabbits looked to serve a death blow early in the final period, scoring five points in the first two minutes to open up the biggest lead of the game 33-23.
It took Slidell only two minutes to cut the lead down to one 33-32 with 4:12 still to play as the Greyhounds could not be kept off the free throw line and Bowie failing to score.
Slidell took the lead 34-33 with two made free throws with 1:19 left to play and all of the momentum since the Jackrabbits had not scored in the last five minutes.
Bowie then got a huge play from big post player Gaige Goodman. His size had bothered the Greyhounds all game on defense and he also scored in every quarter. He made a tough basket through contact while also getting the foul call for a shot at an old fashioned 3-point play. He sunk the free throw to give the Jackrabbits back the lead 36-34 with 45 seconds left.
Unfortunately, Bowie could not keep Slidell off the free throw line. With 31 seconds left, the Greyhounds sunk both clutch free throws to tie the game at 36-36.
Attempts at winning in regulation did not go either team’s way as the game went to overtime.
It was back and forth through the early going. Bowie scored on a basket from Rayder Mann and Slidell answered with a 3-pointer to lead 39-38.
The Greyhounds added one point to their lead with a made free throw to lead 40-38 with less than two minutes left in the overtime period.
The Jackrabbits got the lead back with Mann sinking a 3-pointer from the corner with 1:28 left in the game to give Bowie a 41-40 lead.
The Jackrabbit defense was able to come up with stop after stop. Bowie had three trips to the free throw line to extend its lead and only made two of its six shots.
Still, the Jackrabbits held on to win 43-40.

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

For more pictures from the game, click here https://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=bnews1&AID=6870899&T=1