No. 3 Lady Texans best Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College 62-56 Friday

MIAMI, OK — The third-ranked South Plains College women's basketball team had three players score in double figures Friday as they bested Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College 62-56 in their season opener at the NEO Field House.

The Lady Texans will be back on the hardwood on Saturday as they travel to Warner, Oklahoma for a 2 p.m. matchup against Connors State College.

"I think it was good to play on the road and they had a really good home environment," South Plains head coach Ara Baten said. "It was loud and it was good for us to play a tough game early on. We played tough down the stretch and found a way to win a game, and this was a good test for us and something we can build on."

Freshman Debora Reis led the Lady Texans on the offensive end as the 6-foot forward from Brazil poured in 16 points, 14 coming in the final 20 minutes of the contest. Sophomore Viktoria Ivanova netted 13 points for the Lady Texans as the 5-foot-10 guard from Bulgaria led the South Plains with 11 points in the front half.

Sophomore Grace Hunter chipped in 12 points for the Lady Texans as the 5-10 guard from New Zealand bucketed 10 of her final total in the second half. Sophomore Jordan Brown chipped in nine points while Ka'Lia Smith scored four and Denista Petrova and Ewa Kielar each had three points.

"I thought we had some favorable matchups in the post that we didn't take advantage of in the first half," Baten said. "I thought our kids did a really good job in the second half of recognizing those matchups and getting the ball into the position to take advantage of those opportunities. I thought for the most part we executed what we trying to do, and overall we won a nice road game against a good team in a tough place to play."