No. 3 Blinn edges No. 4 Lady Texans 66-59 Monday

LEVELLAND — In what was sure to be a wire-to-wire contest between two of the country's top five programs, Monday night's perennial matchup with third-ranked Blinn College and No. 4 South Plains did not disappoint, but a late rally from the Lady Buccaneers would be enough in the end as Blinn clipped the Lady Texans 66-59 at the Texan Dome.

South Plains will look to get back in the win column Nov. 11-12 when they travel to Denison, Texas for the Grayson College Classic. The Lady Texans will take on Grayson on Friday at 3 p.m., followed by a 3 p.m. matchup against No. 1 Trinity Valley. Saturday's game will stream live at spctexans.com.

"I thought their kids made some plays at the end of the game, but we had some opportunities, and the ball just didn't bounce our way," South Plains College head coach Ara Baten said. They did a nice job of getting us into some really difficult matchups, and they have a really good basketball team."

Leading 32-28 at the midway point, South Plains would extend its lead to 11, 39-28 on a free throw from sophomore Celia Sumbane early in the third quarter. Blinn would answer back and get within six, 42-36 on a 3 from Hannah Humphrey with 6:54 left in the quarter. The Lady Buccaneers would then pull within one, 48-47 on a layup from Tiffany Tullis with 1:02 remaining in the third.

"I thought our defense was good at times, and at times it wasn't" Baten said. "I think it was one of those things where we had four players doing the right thing defensively, and one player not doing the right thing, and it caused a breakdown and an open shot. That's where we have to get better."

Blinn would go on to take its first lead of the second half, 55-54 following a 3 from Humphrey with 6:01 to go in the fourth quarter. Blinn would go on to extend its lead to as much as nine in the final minutes as Humphrey finished with a team-high 18 points over 28 minutes. South Plains won the battle inside, netting 28 points inside the paint, and chipped in 14 points on second-chance opportunities.

"Blinn made some plays at the end, and we missed some opportunities," Baten said. "We missed some shots inside, and it seemed like they did a good job making their free throws and us not so much. I thought when it was a two or three possession game, we didn't fight that hard, and we have to learn you have to fight through adversity and find a way to keep pushing."

Sumbane finished with a game-high 23 points and seven rebounds, connecting on eight of 17 shots from the floor over 26 minutes. Matilda Soderlund bucketed 11 points and five rebounds as the Lady Texans shot 32.3 percent from the floor in the contest. Tullis finished with 11 points and 11 rebounds for Blinn who shot 36.2 percent from the field.