It took a stifling Bowie defense and some unfriendly road rims to slow Westlake’s roll to an undisputed District 25-5A title.

The No. 17 Bulldogs (27-5 overall, 11-2 in 25-5A) handed No. 7 Westlake (27-5, 12-1) its first district setback with a 49-40 win before a rabid crowd Friday at Bowie High School. The Chaps never led in the contest while scoring a season-low in points, and they tallied just nine points in a first half marred by a series of point-blank misses.

“We shot about 15 percent in that first half, and I never thought we could shoot that low,” Westlake coach Tres Ellis said. “But, you know, it’s a rivalry game, and you go into another gym, and sometimes things like this happen .We did a lot of things right, but we didn’t make shots. And they did when they needed to.”

Westlake has one more shot to claim its undisputed district championship when it hosts Pflugerville Tuesday at Westlake High School. The Chaps have already clinch at least a share of their first district title in six years, but no member of the team was in a mood to share the crown with Bowie.

“There are nights when you just shoot bad, and they [Bowie] played good defense, but we’ll be alright,” Chap forward Carl Meyertons said. “We’ll forget about this loss, and come back against Pflugerville. We got them.”

Bowie, which trails the Chaps by one game, visits Anderson in its finale.

Although Bowie held the Chaps to 4-of-23 shooting in the first half, the Bulldogs only made seven buckets themselves while building an 18-9 halftime lead. Both teams began to heat up after the break, and the Chaps climbed to within 31-30 after Cody Doolin drove into the lane and dished to Keaton Lancashire for a three-pointer with 6 minutes, 17 seconds left in the game.

The Chaps could never grab that elusive lead, however. The Bulldogs’ vaunted matchup zone held Westlake to 25.5 percent shooting for the game and allowed just two more Chap baskets in the game.

Solid shooting from the foul stripe helped Bowie seal the win. The Bulldogs made 14 foul shots in the final 5:07 of the game. For the contest, they converted 21 of 29 free throws.

Doolin scored 17 points and dished out four assists for Westlake, but no other Chap scored more than seven points.

Paul Baxter paced Bowie with 14 points.

While Ellis expressed disappointment with the loss, he found a silver lining surrounding Westlake’s rugged schedule down the stretch. Westlake’s four opponents that close the regular season – Austin High, Akins, Bowie and Pflugerville – have won almost a combined 75 percent of their game.

“The great thing is that we’re being tested going into the playoffs,” he said. “That should help us stay focused. This whole stretch is great preparation going into the playoffs . We’ll be mentally ready, because we’ve had to get up for all these [last four] games.”

Box


Feb. 12

Bowie 49, Westlake 40

Bowie 7 11 13 18 – 49

Westlake 4 5 16 15 – 40

Westlake (27-5, 12-1) – Powell 2-8 0-2 7, Meyertons 2-5 0-3 4, Kemper 1-13 0-0 3, Leeper 3-8 00 6, Doolin 4-12 8-9 17, Rowan 0-1 0-0 0, Cox 0-2 0-0 0, Lancashire 1-2 0-0 3. Totals 13-51 8-14 40.

Bowie (27-5, 11-2) – Baxter 3-7 7-9 14, Lindsey 2-9 7-9 10, Robinson 4-8 4-5 12, Perry 2-7 3-6 7, Anderson 2-9 0-0 5, Varela 0-1 0-0 0, O’Reilly 0-2 0-0 0. Totals 17-43 21-29 49.

3-Point goals: Westlake 4-19 (Lancashire 1-2, Doolin 1-4, Powell 1-5, Kemper 1-5, Rowan 0-1), Bowie 3-21(Baxter 1-2, Robinson 1-3, Anderson 1-9, Perry 0-1, Varela 0-1, O’Reilly 0-2, Lindsey 0-4). Rebounds: Westlake 35 (Kemper 8, Powell 8), Bowie 38 (Perry 12). Assists: Westlake 7 (Doolin 4), Bowie 8 (Baxter 5). Steals: Westlake 2 (Doolin 1, Meyertons 1), Bowie 3 (Robinson 2). Blocks: Westlake 5 (Leeper 3), Bowie 2 (Anderson 2). Turnovers: Westlake 11, Bowie 8. Total fouls: Westlake 19, Bowie 14.