Texans rebound from consecutive losses

by Cody Barron, staff writer

The Western Junior College Athletic Conference race is coming down to the wire.  The South Plains College men’s basketball team needs a strong showing in the second-half of the conference season if they want to hold on to a Region V Tournament birth.   The Texans got back to their winning ways on Feb. 11 when they hosted Clarendon College after dropping two consecutive games. 

The Texans held the Bulldogs to just five field goals in the first half, which helped SPC take a 35-12 halftime lead.  The Texans really got their offense going in the second half, shooting 50 percent from the field en route to an 80-47 victory.

Luciano de Souza led SPC with 14 points, while Nick Okorie added 13, David Tairu added 12 and Jonathan Hall chipped in 10 points.

On Feb. 7, the Texans traveled to Snyder to take on Western Texas College.  Both teams started out slow, but heated up in the second half.  However, the Westerners were too much for the Texans, handing them a 92-78 setback.

The first half saw seven lead changes, and WTC took a 33-29 advantage into intermission.  SPC scored 49 second-half points, but it would be no match for WTC’s 59 second-half points on 69 percent shooting. 

Okorie led SPC with 26 points, Tairu poured in 18 points and Hall added 10 points in the loss. 

Poor shooting from the Texans would prove to be the difference in a loss to Midland College on Feb 4.  SPC shot a measly 39 percent from the field during their 75-63 loss to the Chaps, their worst shooting game so far this season.

The Texans kept it close in the first half, despite hitting only nine of 26 field goal attempts.  The Chaps pushed the lead to nine, 34-25, at the half, thanks, in part, to a buzzer-beating 3-pointer.  The Texans’ shooting woes continued in the second half, as SPC shot one for eight from three-point territory.

Tairu came off the bench to lead SPC with 16 points, followed by 14 from Okorie and Hall’s 13 points and 11 rebounds.

On Jan. 31, the Texans hosted Frank Phillips College to open up the second half of WJCAC play.  The Texans shot 52 percent for the game en route to an easy 93-67 victory. 

 

The lead changed hands several times early on, before SPC used an 11-0 run with a little more than eight minutes to play in the first half to move ahead 33-22.  The Texans led 41-30 at halftime and would never look back, leading building a 33-point cushion in the second half. 

Hugh Mingo’s 21 points off the bench led SPC.  De Souza chipped in 16,  while Lu Griffin added 14 and Hall finished with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

SPC was to host WJCAC-leader Odessa on Feb. 14, before traveling to Roswell, N.M., to take on the New Mexico Military Institute on Feb. 18.  Results were not available at press time

  All photos by Britni Palomino/Plainsman Press