#7 Lady Texans oust Connors State College 77-50 Friday

LEVELLAND — Four players scored in double figures Friday night as the seventh-ranked South Plains College women's basketball team ousted Connors State College 77-50 at the Texan Dome to improve to 2-0 on the year.

The Lady Texans will close out the weekend with a 2 p.m. matchup against Otero Junior College on Saturday at the Dome. The contest will stream live at spctexans.com, and admission is free to the public.

"We got off to a slow start and struggled a bit offensively," South Plains head coach Ara Baten said. "We found a rhythm defensively and were able to generate some offense from our defense which helped us out. We have to get better, and this time of the year can be difficult. We're trying to keep growing and keep improving."

Connors State jumped out to an 8-0 lead to open the game and led 12-11 after ten minutes. South Plains would answer with a 12-3 run to begin the second quarter and regain control at the midway point taking a 37-22 advantage into the locker room. Martyna Czescik led South Plains with 12 points in the front half as SPC shot 34 percent in the first 20 minutes.

South Plains controlled the pace in the back half, shooting 43 percent as Raija Todd would lead all scorers with 20 points, dropping in 7 of 18 shots from the field over 32 minutes. Ashala Moseberry scored in double figures for the second straight game, netting 16 points on 5 of 12 shooting and was 4 of 5 from the free throw line.

"Generating the offense from the defense was big for us," Baten said. "It seemed like we created a lot of turnovers which created some transition opportunities on missed baskets which turned out to be our best offense. We got out in transition, and that's fine in early November, but we can't survive on that. We have to share the ball more in the half court, get the ball going from one side of the court to the other, and the ball has to go in and come back out."

Celia Sumbane tallied 10 points and four boards over 23 minutes as South Plains finished 40 percent from the floor and 28.6 percent from distance. Despite losing the rebounding battle 47-35, SPC netted 19 points on second-chance opportunities and totaled 35 points off 35 turnovers from Connors State.

"We didn't share the ball well and I'm a little disappointed in our offensive execution, but at the end of the day the kids played hard," Baten said. "We're going to go through these kind of stretches, and we have to learn how to play, and how to play together."