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Sports

Lady Blues fall in close loss at Bowie

In their second game out of the holiday break, the Lady Blues hit the road and came away with a close loss to the Bowie Lady Rabbits 31-23.

It was a bit of a struggle offensively for Graham as it’s taking the team a bit of time to get their legs back under them after earning some time off. After the first quarter, the teams were evenly matched before Bowie began to pull away.

The Lady Blues continued to fight all game and appeared to be mounting a comeback near the end before ultimately coming up short and taking the loss.

A look back at 2023 sports highlights

As we wrap up 2023 and venture into the new year, The Graham Leader is taking a look back at the sports news that happened during the 2023 calendar year.

This year saw playoff appearances in multiple sports, records broken, milestones achieved and new coaches and staff brought into the mix. It also included a change in sports writers at The Graham Leader midway through the year.

In the first installment of the two-part series, we look back at sports highlights from January through June.

January

King, Dollar earn Athletes of the Week

Christmas Day has come and gone and New Year’s Day is fast approaching on the horizon. The year 2023 is coming to an end, but things move forward for high school sports teams.

While teams at the county’s schools took time off from competition to enjoy their time with family and friends, there are still athletes that deserve recognition for their play before the break and throughout the season.

Steers lock horns with Bulls, earn win

Facing a team twice in one season can bring both advantages and disadvantages. For the Graham Steers, getting to see the Bridgeport Bulls again worked in the Steers’ favor as they earned a 52-31 win.

In Graham’s final game before a break for the holidays, the Steers traveled Wednesday, Dec. 20 to Bridgeport for a clash with the Bulls, after playing them once before during the Red, White & Blue tournament in the beginning of the month.

Ladycats run away with win over Lady Rabbits

What started out as a close match-up turned into a runaway win for the Newcastle Ladycats when they took down the visiting Graford Lady Rabbits 44-31 last week.

On their home court Newcastle trailed Tuesday, Dec. 19 after the first quarter but found a groove after that and ran away with the win. The Ladycats moved to 2-0 in district play on the season and, as of the Texas Girls Coaches Association basketball poll from Dec. 17, were ranked ninth in all of Class 1A in the state.

Steers win big over Big Spring

Coming off any sort of loss a coach wants to see how his players respond, and the Graham Steers did so in a big way with a 72-42 win over the Big Spring Steers.

After a disappointing loss the weekend before at Iowa Park, Graham looked to get back in the win column Monday, Dec. 18. Thanks to an explosive, healthy offense, and combined with a major milestone from one of the team’s top seniors, the Graham Steers earned a satisfying win all around.

Wilde, Allen earn Athletes of the Week honors

Temperatures are dropping but for the Steers and Lady Blues basketball teams, they continue to stay hot on the court.

This past week the teams combined to win three out of four games, with a couple of those games coming by large margins. Both teams are on a well-deserved holiday break now for some time, but they’ve been showing up and showing out all season.

Lady Blues take control in win over Big Spring

The Graham Lady Blues started strong and never looked back Monday, Dec. 18 as they rolled to a 60-23 win over the Big Spring Lady Steers.

Graham controlled the opening tip-off and immediately went to work, as the Lady Blues dominated all aspects of the game en route to the win. The victory came on the back of a narrow one-point win a few days prior.

The two teams met on a neutral court at Clyde High School but the location didn’t matter for the Lady Blues. They executed their offense at a high level and put up a season-high 60 points.

Steers can’t overcome slow start in loss at Iowa Park

One week had passed since Graham and Iowa Park went to overtime in their match-up during the Red, White & Blue tournament where the Hawks pulled out the win in the extra period.

Unfortunately, the result wasn’t as close the second time these two teams matched up Friday, Dec. 15, this time in Iowa Park. The Steers got off to a slow start in the game and couldn’t overcome the Hawks’ effort as they took the loss 60-45.