Texans Dunk NMJC for Co-Championship

HOBBS, N.M. – The South Plains College Texans used several spectacular dunks and a career night off the bench from Lu Griffin to defeat the New Mexico Junior College Thunderbirds 82-63 Thursday in Hobbs, N.M.

The win wrapped up a WJCAC Co-Championship for the Texans, who will share the title with Frank Phillips College, who defeated Midland 94-91 in overtime Thursday. Both teams finished 13-3 in conference play. The Texans are 24-6 overall and ranked No. 20 in the nation.

During the course of Thursday's game, SPC showed off their athleticism with some highlight reel dunks from Griffin, Nick Okorie and Steve Harley, most of them coming in the last 10 minutes of the game when the Texans started to finally pull away from a pesky Thunderbird team.

The Texans shot 51 percent in the first half, but still only led by six (39-33) at halftime because of poor free throw shooting. SPC was only 5 of 12 from the foul line in the first half. The Texans got some help from their bench though as Griffin came in and recorded a double double in the first half with 10 points and 12 rebounds.

In the second half, South Plains withstood a shooting barrage from NMJC's Dominic Tilford, who hit three 3-pointers in the second half. Despite the points from Tilford, the Texans still managed to outscore the T-Birds 43-30 in the final 20 minutes.

Griffin finished the night with 17 points and 19 rebounds for SPC, both career highs. Jonathan Hall added 19 points and 11 rebounds, Harley scored 18, Okorie added 12, Jermaine Bolden had 9, Delawn Armwood scored 6 and Malik Motnii had 1.

Tilford finished with 23 points for NMJC.

The Texans will be the No. 2 seed from the West in the Region V Tournament which begins Friday in Belton. SPC will play at 5 p.m., against the No. 3 seed from the North. Frank Phillips will be the West's No. 1 seed, while Midland is No. 3 and Howard is No. 4. All tournament games will be played at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

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