WJCAC Basketball Spotlight: South Plains hosts Odessa Thursday night at the Texan Dome

LEVELLAND — The South Plains College men's and women's basketball teams will wrap up the regular season on Thursday night when they play host to Odessa College on Sophomore Night at the Texan Dome. Mike Mamantov of Ameriprise Financial will be sponsoring the games and feeding all SPC employees a brisket taco dinner and giving away a $250.00 cash price at the halftime of each game.

The Lady Texans will tip at 5:45 p.m., followed by the men's game at 7:30. Both games will be streaming live at spctexans.com.

The Texans enter the contest as winners of six of their last seven, their most recent victory coming on the road Monday night when they downed Clarendon 95-86 at the Bulldog Gymnasium. South Plains is 20-7 on the year and second in the WJCAC with a 12-3 conference record. Averaging 79.1 points per game, the Texans are 8-3 at home this season and have forced opponents to shoot just 40.6 percent from the floor and 26.9 percent from behind the arc.

In their previous meeting with the Odessa on Jan. 29 in Odessa, South Plains fell to the Wranglers 95-80 in a contest which saw nine lead changes. South Plains' Deshawn Corprew scored a team-high 22 points on 8 of 15 shooting from the field while Raymond Doby netted 16 points and grabbed 11 boards. Ben Perez finished with 10 points and three assists, and Christopher Orlina and Jordan Brangers each had nine. Ranked seventh in the country and averaging 92.2 points per game, Odessa has won 16 of its last 17 games and is led by freshman guard LJ Figueroa who leads the Wranglers with 20.6 points per game.

The Lady Texans enter Thursday with an overall record of 16-13 including a 3-10 mark in the WJCAC. South Plains overcame a 10-point third quarter deficit to down the Clarendon Lady Bulldogs 58-57 on Monday in Clarendon. South Plains dropped their previous matchup with the Lady Wranglers 60-57 in Odessa. South Plains' Mikayla Kuehne netted a team-high 27 points and Christina Baker tallied 12 points, knocking down 6 of 11 attempts from the floor to go along with six boards.

The Lady Wranglers are 19-9 on the year and 7-6 in the WJCAC. Averaging 71.5 points per game and shooting 41.6 percent from the field on the year, Odessa has won six of its last eight. The Lady Wranglers are led by sophomore forward Tanaka Gapare who is averaging 11.1 points per game on the year. Sophomore Shannon Dozier is second on the team with 10.8 points per game and is averaging nearly 12 points per game in conference play.