Texans rally, clip Blazers 68-64 Saturday

LEVELLAND — Trailing by 10 in the second half, the South Plains College men's basketball team rallied in the final minutes of Saturday's contest against Dallas College-North Lake, clipping the Blazers 68-64 at the Texan Dome.

South Plains improves to 3-3 on the season and will be back on the floor on Nov. 26 at 7 p.m. against Collin College as part of the Collin County Thanksgiving Classic. The contest will stream live at spctexans.com.

"I thought two or three of our guards stepped up and did the job that needed to be done on both ends of the floor," South Plains head coach Steve Green said. "We were absent anybody inside today. I thought Savion, DJ, and Kieves played well, and they did everything they could do to rally the troops."  

Trailing 40-30 with just over 15 minutes to play, Savion Gallion converted at the rim to spark a 12-4 run from South Plains, which would see the Texans get within a single bucket on a Kieves Turner' layup with 11:26 left to bring the score to 44-42 in favor of the Blazers. Trading baskets over the next five minutes, South Plains would take its first lead of the second half on a 3-ball from DJ Avery which put SPC up 54-52 with 6:53 remaining.

"We went to a different scheme on the offensive end and tried to create some movement instead of just isolated plays," Green said. "I think that opened things up a little bit where Savion could drive inside. It seemed like almost every time he got inside something good happened for us."

Turner would extend the lead to seven at the 2:56 mark with a pair of free throws, giving South Plains a 62-55 advantage. The Blazers answered to get within striking distance with 1:22 to go, as Gregory Crawford dropped in two free throws to bring the score to 62-59. Darion Jones would get Dallas College-North Lake within two, 66-64 with a layup with 25 ticks left, but a pair of free throws from Gallion with 15 seconds remaining put the game away in the final seconds.

"We are not very good right now at securing defensive rebounds, and we are going to address that this week," Green said. "We have to get a whole lot better in everything we do. We have to figure out who wants to play and who is willing to sacrifice for the team."

Gallion finished with a game-high 21 points, connecting on 7 of 10 shots from the floor, and was 6 of 7 from the free throw line. Turner netted 16 points, five boards, and five assists, shooting 5 of 13 from the field, and was a perfect 6 of 6 from the charity stripe. Avery poured in 14 points over 26 minutes as the Texans shot 44.4 percent (24-54) from the floor and 25 percent (6-24) from distance.