Texans Down Howard For Region V Championship

BELTON – The South Plains College Texans made 11 free throws in the final 1:36 to seal an 80-72 win over Howard College in the championship game of the NJCAA Region V Tournament in Belton Sunday.

The win advances the Texans (26-5) to the NJCAA National Tournament in Hutchinson, Kan., for the first time since 2003. The win was also Texan head coach Steve Green’s 200th win at SPC. His overall record is now 342-95 including 200-55 at South Plains College.

South Plains raced out to an 11-1 lead and only trailed once. SPC led by as many as 11 before Howard rallied to take a 36-35 lead with 16:12 remaining in the game. The Texans quickly regained the lead and were up by 10 (51-41) less than 6 minutes later. Howard got within 4 (72-68) with 37 seconds remaining, but the Texans went 8 from 8 from the free throw line down the stretch.

David Tairu came off the bench to score 20 points to lead SPC. Luciano de Souza added 19, Jonathan Hall had 16, Nick Okorie scored 10, Carlos Dos Santos added 6, Landon Tatum had 5 and Kendrick Johnson scored 4.

For Howard, Sean Watson had 18 points.

BOX SCORE