Lady Texans open up conference play against Midland on Wednesday

LEVELLAND—As winners of eight straight, the South Plains College women's basketball team will put their win streak on the line when they travel to Midland on Wednesday with tipoff set for 5:45 p.m.

It's been nearly a month since the Lady Texans have tasted defeat, with their single loss coming to West Texas Drive on Nov. 2. South Plains went on to win five consecutive games before avenging their only loss of the season with a 74-53 drumming of West Texas Drive on Nov. 14.

The Lady Texans will now look to their Western Junior College Athletic Conference opener against a Midland team that is currently ranked 11th in the country in the latest NJCAA preseason polls. The Lady Chaparrals sit at 6-2 on the season, with their two losses coming against Trinity Valley and Salt Lake, who are currently ranked 2nd and 6th in the country, respectively.

"I'm just really happy with the growth of our team," South Plains head coach Cayla Petree said. "We started off the year with that one loss and it may have been the best thing in the world for us. We weren't ready to play, and the little things that we know are important to win we just didn't do. Since then, we've really grown as a team."

Elizabeth Cera comes into Wednesday's matchup as the leading scorer for the Lady Texans with her 17.6 points per game average. The 5-8 guard from Levelland currently ranks 13th in the country with her 158 total points and 12th in the NJCAA with her 30 total 3-pointers.

Jasauen Beard, who transferred to Levelland from Oral Roberts University is averaging 14.9 points per game, as the 6-1 sophomore is shooting 50.5 percent from the floor on the year. Yanina Inkina is shooting 52.6 percent from the field this season for the Lady Texans while also averaging 11.3 points per game.

Midland is led by sophomore center Janae Bunn, who enters the contest averaging 11.9 points per game. Teneshia Dixon is averaging 9 points per game for the Lady Chaparrals, while freshman guard Alexandrea Washington enters Wednesday averaging 8.8 points per game.

"Our depth has been key for us," Petree said. "Brittany Smith, Elizabeth Cera, Jasauen Beard and Yanina Inkina have played really well for us. We have a lot of different scoring options, and that's helped us so far this season."

You can watch the action live at spctexans.com using the 'Watch Games' tab at the top of the homepage. Michael Wiiest of KLVT radio in Levelland will call the play-by-play action, with pregame coverage set to begin at 5:30 p.m.