No. 1 South Plains defeats Seward County 72-64 to capture Fiesta Bowl Junior College Shootout championship Saturday in Arizona

MESA, AZ — Gaige Prim recorded his fourth consecutive double-double with 23 points and 10 rebounds as the No. 1 ranked South Plains College men's basketball team rallied from a four-point halftime deficit to defeat Seward County 72-64 Saturday night at Heap Gym to capture the 2018 Fiesta Bowl Junior College Shootout championship.

South Plains improves to 13-0 on the year and will close out their road trip out west when they take on Scottsdale Community College at 2 p.m. MST on Dec. 31 in Scottsdale.

Trailing 32-28 at the half, South Plains used a 16-9 run to begin the final stint capped by a 3-ball from Deon Barett to take a 44-41 lead with 13:23 to go. Barett would extend the Texans' lead to eight with another trey that put South Plains up 52-44 with 10:08 remaining.

Trailing by as much as 13 with under two minutes to play, Seward (11-3) would trim the lead to six on a Marco Morency layup with 10 seconds left, but it wouldn't be enough as Prim sunk a pair of free throws following a foul on the Saints' Hegel Augustin with nine seconds to go, giving the Texans their second Fiesta Bowl Shootout crown in the last three years.

Barett finished with 15 points and five assists, knocking down 4 of 11 attempts from the floor including a trio of 3s. Sophomore Chris Orlina netted 15 points and 11 boards, bucketing 5 of 11 attempts from the field while Trey Wade chipped in 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Despite going 4 of 16 from the perimeter, South Plains shot 44.8 percent from the field in the contest and were 16-for-20 from the charity stripe. The Texans tallied 36 points inside the paint and dominated the glass, outrebounding the Saints 38-25 over 40 minutes. South Plains scored 11 points on 11 forced turnovers as they held Seward to a 38.1 percent mark from the floor and a 25 percent mark from behind the arc.

Morency led the Saints with 20 points coming off the bench, knocking down 6 of 12 attempts from the field and was 6 of 8 from the free throw line. Devin Bethely finished with 12 points for Seward while Montrevion Flowers had nine and Reggie Miller netted eight.