Lady Texans fall short of tournament expectations

by Nathan Wall, staff writer

For the third consecutive year, the Lady Texans advanced to the NJCAA the Region 5 Tournament Championship game.

Unfortunately, SPC dropped the contest to the Midland College Lady Chaps, 73-50, ending their season with a 26-4 record overall.

Brittany Blackmon, the regular season scoring leader for SPC, was held to just five points in the game, despite having averaged 16 points per game on the season.

The Lady Texans split the regular-season series with the Lady Chaps but dropped a 70-52 decision when the teams last met on Feb. 4.

Chasity Workman led the Lady Texans with 13 points, while Ashley Frazier, the team’s all-time assists leader, chipped in 12 points of her own.

However, the defense of Lady Texans failed to contain Lyrell Barfield, who led all scorers in the game with 20 points.

The Lady Texans were hampered by foul trouble throughout the game, as Blackmon played less than three minutes in the first half after quickly picking up two fouls. Rachel Gray fouled out in the second half, while Frazier missed more than seven minutes after picking up her fourth foul. 

In their semi-final game at the NJCAA Region 5 tourney against Howard College, the Lady Texans trailed most of the first half, falling behind 24-11 with five minutes left until halftime, before pulling out a 64-62 victory.

South Plains didn’t take it’s first lead of the game until Gray hit 3-pointer with 14:53 left in the second half.

Blackmon contributed 31 points and 11 rebounds in the close contest. Haruka Nagado came off the bench to contribute 11.

In a Region 5 quarterfinal contest, the Lady Texans saw a 17-point lead dwindle before being able to recover and beat Collin County Community College, 77-70.       

In the first half, Collin County was able to shrink the South Plains advantage to 39-36 before a Krystal Davis 3-point shot right before halftime gave the Lady Texans a six-point lead.

Blackmon was the leading scorer for South Plains with 17 points, and Frazier added a team-high five assists. Workman added a team-leading nine rebounds.

Amber Murray led Collin County with 22 points and eight rebounds.

On Feb. 25, after clinching a share of the Western Junior College Athletic Conference title in Big Spring, the Lady Texans proceeded to finish their regular season out and claim the championship outright with an 86-53 victory against New Mexico Junior College on Feb. 28. Led by Coach Michelle Wyatt, the Lady Texans became back-to-back conference champs with an 85-53 victory.

The Lady Texans have four sophomores who played their last game in the Texan Dome that night, Blackmon, Frazier, Mariame Djouara and Nagado.

Blackmon, from Clovis New Mexico, is an elementary education major.

Frazier, a business management major from Dallas Texas finished off her career with178 assists this season.

Djouara, who hails from the Ivory Coast and majors in international relations, was second on the team in scoring after averaging more than 14 points per game.

Nagado, a kinesiology major from Okinawa Japan, transferred from Weatherford College and averaged a team-high 80 percent from the free-throw line this year with the Lady Texans.