Texans hold off Clarendon with 87-76 victory

Controversies and tiebreakers were avoided when New Mexico later defeated Midland in Hobbs.

A victory by Midland would have created a three-way tie for third place in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference (WJCAC) standings.  Because a three-way tie must be broken by a power point system, New Mexico would have fallen from third place in the league to the odd man out in the event of a loss.

With the win, South Plains (22-7, 11-5) will face Ranger in the first round of next week's Region 5 tournament on Thursday, March 7 at 5 p.m.  The Texans handily defeated the Rangers 97-80 in their season opener Nov. 2.

On Thursday, South Plains appeared to take control of the game in the first half.

Leading 21-20 just past the midway point of the first half, South Plains went on a 17-0 run to assert control of the contest and would eventually take a commanding 42-25 lead to the locker room.

After stretching their lead to as many as 22, the Texans let their guard down and Clarendon took advantage.

Trailing 63-41, the Bulldogs pulled to within five points after they charged out to a 19-2 scoring run to pull themselves back into the game. 

Inside of four minutes to play, Clarendon pulled as close to four points.

That was as close as the Texans would allow their opponent to get as a three-point play byYanick Moreira was followed by two free throws by Kendahl Amerson to give SPC a nine-point cushion less than a minute later.

South Plains' lead would not be less than seven for the remainder of the game as they went on to the 11-point victory.

Moreira led all scorers with 24 points while also collecting 12 rebounds despite playing only 27 minutes due to foul trouble.  Anthony Walker made 8-of-12 shots to finish with 20 points, a season high.

PSBLive.com will broadcast each game of next weeks Region 5 men's and women's basketball tournaments.  Links to each game can be found at www.psblive.com.  A local audio broadcast of South Plains College games can be found on the air at KLVT 1230 AM and online at www.klvtradio.com.

Clarendon (15-15, 4-12)

Jerarad Graham 4-10 3-3 12, Mario Garcia 2-9 1-2 6, Keon Littleton 6-19 4-6

17, Alex Harrison 3-8 1-4 7, Hershell Grant 2-5 3-4 7, Adika Peter McNeilly 4-10

2-3 14, Julius Foster 3-7 3-5 9, Romell Bateman 0-1 0-0 0, Tyler Lazenby 0-0

0-0 0, D'yonne Luke 0-0 0-0 0, Mawen Maywin 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 26-72 17-27 76

South Plains (22-7, 11-5)

Yanick Moreira 7-13 10-16 24, Darrel Lucky 3-7 0-0 7, Devonte Smith 1-3 9-10

12, Malik Nichols 1-1 0-3 2, Kendahl Amerson 5-16 2-2 16, Forrest Robinson 0-0

0-0 0, Brandon Neel 0-2 0-0 0, J.R. Owens 1-2 0-0 2, Ryan Martin 2-3 0-0 4,

Michael Karena 0-1 0-0 0, Anthony Walker 8-12 4-6 20. Totals 28-60 25-37 87

SCORE BY PERIODS 1st 2nd TOTAL

Clarendon 28 48 76

South Plains 42 45 87

FG%: Clarendon .361, South Plains .467. 3-pt FG:Clarendon 7-26 (Graham 1-4,

Garcia 1-6, Littleton 1-4, Harrison 0-3, Grant 0-1, McNeilly 4-8), South Plains

6-16 (Lucky 1-2, Smith 1-2, Amerson 4-11, Neel 0-1). Rebounds: Clarendon 33

(Littleton 6, Grant 6), South Plains 48 (Moreira 13). Fouls Clarendon 26, South

Plains 24. Fouled out: Foster Walker . Technical: none. Assists: Clarendon 5

(Foster 2), South Plains 17 (Smith 8). Steals: Clarendon 9 (Garcia 3, Foster 3),

South Plains 11 (Smith 4). Blocked shots: Clarendon 4 (Littleton 2), South Plains

5 (Walker 3). Turnovers: Clarendon 16, South Plains 21.