HIGH SCHOOL BASKETBALL: Bowie ends Crane’s playoff run in I-3A tourney

MIDLAND The Crane Golden Cranes had one of those nights Friday where the shots just wouldn’t fall.

Crane struggled from the floor almost from the start and the Bowie Jackrabbits took advantage to roll to a 64-39 victory in a Region I-3A boys basketball semifinal at the Chaparral Center. Crane (25-5) shot just 22.2 percent overall (12 of 54) and 20.7 percent from 3-point range (6 of 29) in the season-ending loss.

“When those shots aren’t falling, it gets tough on you,” Crane coach Chris Suttle said. “The few games we have lost this year, that’s been the case — those shots just not falling. But that’s the way basketball goes. Sometimes the go in, sometimes they don’t.”

No. 10 Bowie (30-7) will play No. 2 Brock (36-3) at 1 p.m. Saturday for a trip to the Class 3A state tournament. Brock advanced with a 41-39 victory over No. 19 Shallowater.

Crane’s Carlos Montes scored a game-high 24 points, hitting five 3-pointers, before fouling out with 4:35 remaining. By that point, the Jackrabbits had an 18-point lead.

Bowie coach Doug Boxell said the Jackrabbits tried to deny Montes the ball by face-guarding him, then would run another defender at him.

“He’s really good,” Boxell said of Montes. “He’s good at drawing the foul and they can post him up. He’s good at getting his shot off.

“We were hoping as the game went on we could get him tired and he wouldn’t hit as many. He got in foul trouble so that helped.”

Suttle said Bowie’s strategy kept Crane from getting in a rhythm.

“They pressured up on (Montes) and tried to make things tough on him. I thought we forced some shots early and allowed them to kind of get away from us a little bit.”

Montes scored 17 points in the first half, but the Golden Cranes trailed by 17 at the half. Post Ivan Esparza was the only other Crane player to score in the first half, hitting a pair of free throws, and the Golden Cranes didn’t have another player score from the field until Kobe Henderson hit a 3-pointer with 2:16 left in the third quarter.

Esparza, who fouled out early in the fourth quarter, finished with four points, all from the line. Henderson’s 3-pointer was his only basket and no other Crane player scored more than two points.

Bowie was led by the post tandem of brothers Gary and Daniel Mosley, who combined for 26 points and led the Jackrabbits to a 41-34 rebounding advantage. Gary Mosley scored a team-high 18 points, while Daniel Mosley had all of his eight points in the first quarter as Bowie built a 14-7 lead.

“Both Mosley boys are good players,” Suttle said. “They’re athletic, they jump well, they rebound well. You can tell with them being brothers that they have a good chemistry that’s very unique. What they’re able to do together gives everybody fits.

“We knew that we had to try to keep them off the glass and that was a big part of our game plan. We wanted to make them do stuff they’re uncomfortable doing. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. They’re going to go get what they’re going to get just because they’re special players.”

Keck Jones added nine points for Bowie with Kason Spikes and Jeffery Howard each scoring seven.