The #14 South Plains College Texans basketball team competed in the 2026 NJCAA Region 5/Southwest District Tournament this past week at the OC Sports Center in Odessa, Texas, besting Temple College in the quarterfinals before being eliminated by #9 Midland College in the semifinals.
The Texans kicked off tournament play by beating Temple, 93-80, in an all-around dominant performance. SPC bested Temple 51% to 45% in field goal shooting, 86% to 67% in free throw shooting, 15-11 in assists, 9-8 in second chance points, 34-20 in points in the paint, 39-30 in bench points and 23-5 in points off turnovers, also winning the turnover margin by seven. Temple would best SPC 32-28 in rebounds, and the two teams would both shoot 42% from three-point range.
The Texans' individual standouts included Micah Bell with 22 points behind 9/12 shooting, adding five assists, two steals and a rebound, Jaylen Colon with 17 points behind five threepointers made, adding four rebounds and an assist, Zion Pipkin with 14 points behind three three-pointers made, adding three assists and two rebounds, and Aliou Maiga with 12 points behind 4/4 free throws made, adding eight rebounds, three blocks and two steals.
Meanwhile, in their second game, SPC lost against Midland College, 74-70, in a hard-fought battle that saw seven lead changes. Midland bested SPC 52% to 41% in field goal shooting, 42% to 37% from three-point range, 73% to 67% from the free throw line, 29-26 in rebounds, 16-15 in assists and 26-22 in points in the paint, while SPC bested them by one in the turnover margin.
Even with that being said, the Texans still had an opportunity to win the game in the final minute but were unable to capitalize.
The Texans' individual standouts against Midland included Colon with 15 points behind five threepointers made, adding four rebounds, Bell with 13 points, five rebounds, three steals and an assist, Deion Ware with 11 points and three assists, and Antallah Sandlin'el with nine points, two rebounds and two assists.
Following the loss, the Texans dropped to 24-7 overall and were eliminated from the Regional Tournament, which Texans Head Basketball Coach Cinco Boone reflected on.
"We are obviously disappointed about our loss to Midland College. We expected and wanted to be playing on championship Saturday and have a chance at defending the region title from a year ago. I thought our guys did a good job of handling business on Thursday versus Temple, and in a quick turnaround did a good job of preparing for Friday's game," Coach Boone said. "But our lack of execution against their zone defense in the first half caused some turnovers that let them go on a run. We did a good job battling back late in the first half and cut it to four at the break. Second half it was a backand-forth game and Midland just made a few more plays than us in order to secure the win. We are hopeful that the selection committee for the National Tournament will respect our resume and give us an at large bid to continue our season."
The NJCAA National Championship Tournament selections will be announced early in the week.