Sports

An up and down year for Jacksboro’s boys basketball team ended on the upswing Feb. 17 as the Tigers took control early and finished the season with a 58-37 win over visiting Millsap at Tiger Gym.

Jacksboro finished at 4-10 in District 7-3A, including a sweep of Millsap, and 10-14 overall. Millsap ends at 2-12 and 5-24.

The Tigers got out to a 6-0 lead, paced by four Wheelis Green tallies. Millsap’s Hunter Matthews buried a pair of 3-pointers to tie the game at six.

Alex Holman fired her second no-hitter of the Tigerette Classic to help Jacksboro move into the semifinals of the tournament with a 5-0, four-inning victory Friday over Henrietta’s JV.

The junior hurler struck out nine and allowed just one walk. Neither team got on the scoreboard through the first two innings. The host squad used two second-inning runs and three in the third to pull away. Jacksboro had eight hits and took advantage of four Lady ‘Cat miscues. 

ARCHER CITY – Bellevue Coach John McGee appeared to have a simple game plan for his Lady Eagles’ bi-district game with Perrin Feb. 17: Attack the basket and let nothing get in the way.

His players did just that after Perrin get out to a quick 2-0 lead, scoring the next 12 points on layups with Lady Pirate defenders already at the basket. The Lady Eagles kept pounding away at Perrin, using speed at the guard position to pull away and post a 64-36 Region III-A win at Wildcat Gym.

Bryson’s first girls basketball district title in more than 30 years came to fruition Feb. 11 with a convincing homecourt win against Woodson. 

It is a trio of seniors in Brinkley Richardson, Kyla Jones, and Macie Jones which led the squad this year. Richardson has led the team in scoring most of the year.

Kyla Jones has done a good job rebounding and providing some needed offense as has Macie Jones.

Area coaches had mixed reviews of their new districts, which were announced Feb. 3.

Jacksboro’s new ”everything but football” district is a change for the Purple, but one it has seen before. It includes Bowie, Breckenridge, Henrietta, Holliday, Nocona, and Wichita Falls City View. All have been a district foe in recent years with Breckenridge the most recent holdover from the last two years.

Jacksboro Boys Basketball Coach Aaron Bass said the realignment brings some familiarity with it.

With less than three seconds to go and Bryson locked in a 43-all tie with Perrin Feb. 4, Tyce Reeves went to the free throw line already 0-3 at the charity stripe for the game, including having missed the front end of this two-shot foul.

Deciding he did not want overtime after watching Perrin come back from a 12-point deficit with just over five minutes left, Reeves buried the free throw to give the Cowboys the lead. With still an eternity remaining, Perrin Coach Jeffrey Browning called timeout to set up a play.

Good teams find a way to stay in the fight even when they are on the way out of it.

Brock’s girls, which lead District 7-3A with a 12-0 record heading into Friday night’s matchup at third place Jacksboro, took a 15-point lead into the fourth quarter despite not playing all that well.

 Friday night at home, in a tight game with visiting Paradise, the Tigerettes supported leading scorer Baylee Thompson with a big second quarter that allowed Jacksboro to pull away and post a 54-33 win.

With the win, which puts Jacksboro at 8-3 in District 7-3A and 16-15 overall, the Tigerettes clinched a playoff spot. The support was something coach Kyle Wood really liked to see.

“I thought we really communicated well tonight and played defense when we weren’t shooting well,” Wood offered. “The support we got in the second quarter allowed us to get rolling.”.

Changes made in UIL realignment will move Jacksboro even further west in their football realignment.

The two-year UIL realignment was announced Monday morning. Jacksboro will remain in Class 3A Division II, but will see some changes.

Gone are Tolar and Rio Vista, which drop down to Class 2A Division I. Replacing them in the new District 5 are Eastland, which drops from Class 3A Division I and has been a non-district opponent for many years, and Merkel, which is outside of Abilene.

Behave yourselves at all times, we have been told, because you are never sure who is watching.

North Texas Football Officials chapter, based out of Wichita Falls, made note of classy behavior while Jacksboro is playing by awarding the Tiger football team its annual sportsmanship award during a ceremony at the Tiger Field House on Wednesday, Jan. 22.