The South Plains College Lady Texans and Texans basketball programs both traveled to face each respective Western Texas College team this past Thursday, resulting in the Lady Texans winning 68-36, and the Texans winning 97-85.
In the Lady Texans win, the game was practically over at halftime as they led 35-15, which they’d only worsen by outscoring them 33-21 in the second half.
That complete domination reflected in the team stats as well, as the Lady Texans bested WTC 48% to 31% in field goal shooting, 24% to 0% from three, 47-21 in rebounds, 19-6 in assists, 2616 in points off turnovers, 13-3 in second chance points, 40-24 in points in the paint and 8-0 in fast break points.
Isabel Joao led them in the win with 22 points behind 10/14 shooting and 2/4 free throws made, adding 11 rebounds, three assists and two steals, followed by Angelina Joao with 14 points behind 6/13 shooting, adding four assists, three rebounds and two steals, and Dilangue Cruz with eight points behind 3/6 shooting and two three-pointers made, adding two rebounds and an assist.
The win improves them to 20-5 overall and 8-4 in conference play, and following the game, Lady Texans Head Basketball Coach Ara Baten gave his thoughts.
“I thought we played well overall. We made some improvements in our half court offensive execution, which is encouraging going into the final part of the season. We had some lapses defensively that we needed to clean up, but overall, I thought we played very solidly.”
Meanwhile, in the Texans’ game, they took a four-point lead into halftime and then built upon it by outscoring WTC 57-49 in the second half.
The Texans shot the basketball extremely well, besting them 59% to 45% in field goal shooting, 57% to 31% from three and 94% to 84% from the free throw line, also besting them 36-24 in rebounds, 37-15 in bench points and 8-2 in fast break points. WTC would only narrowly win the stat categories of assists, turnovers, points off turnovers and points in the paint.
Keith Richard led the Texans in the win with 32 points behind 9/13 field goal shoot ing, 8/8 free throw shooting and six three-pointers made, adding three rebounds and an assist, followed by Zion Pipkin with 16 points behind 12/12 free throws made, add- ing six assists, five rebounds and a steal, and Yohandry Ortiz with 16 points behind 6/6 field goal shooting, 2/3 free throws made and two three-pointers made, adding three rebounds.
The win improves them to 21-6 overall and 10-4 in conference play, and following it, Texans Head Basketball Coach Cinco Boone shared his thoughts.
"Our guys did a terrific job of going down to Snyder and
getting a great conference win against WTC. They are a difficult team to beat in their own gym, and several teams have went there and lost,” Coach Boone said. “Our guys were coming off their bye week, and I thought our guys did a great job of preparing for four to five days in a row, to go win the game Thursday night. We obviously shot the ball extremely well from three and at the foul line, but I thought that was due to our unselfish ball movement.
This win positions us to have a great chance at making the Regional Tournament.”
Both the Texans and Lady Texans have two games remaining against Howard College and Clarendon College, which will be crucial matchups for both programs in their postseason push.
They both host Howard early in the week at home before traveling to face Clarendon on Thursday at the Bulldog Gym, with the women at 5:45 p.m. and the men at 7:30 p.m.