Texans season ends in first round of Region 5 Tournament

March 4, 2010
LUBBOCK, Texas - The 2009-10 season came to an agonizing end for the SPC Texans (18-11) when they fell to No. 24 ranked McLennan Community College (27-4) 74-70 during the first round of the NJCAA Region 5 tournament held at Lubbock Christian University's Rip Griffin Center. The Highlanders are the No. 1 seed from the North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference and will face Midland College Saturday at 12 p.m. in the semi-final round.

The Texans found themselves facing an eight point deficit in the first few minutes of the contest, but they fought back and eventually went to the locker room down only five points, 33-28.

SPC began the second half outscoring the Highlanders 9-2 to take their first lead of the game 37 -35.

The Texan lead was a short lived one, as McLennan dominated the next ten minutes of the contest with a 23-10 scoring run to take an 11 point lead, 58-47.

Sophomores Tramar Sutherland and Bo Ingram then led the Texans on a comeback attempt with Sutherland scoring eight points over the next two minutes to bring SPC within six points.

After Howard extended their lead back to nine points, the Texans fought back and with the score 66-59 in McLennan's favor Ingram nailed a three point shot to get the Texans within four points. 35-seconds later, with McLennan still leading by four points, guard Josh Orta picked up his dribble and desperately looked for a teammate to get the ball to. He found Ingram who nailed his fifth and final three point shot of the night to make it a one possession game, 68-67.

Ingram then fouled MCC's Tre Nichols, who went on to make both bonus free throws.

Malik Smith then missed a three point shot to tie the game for SPC and two more converted free throws for the Highlanders put the game away, eventually winning 74-70.

Tramar Sutherland made 11-of-20 shots and led the Texans with 22 points in his final game. Ingram and Myles Walker, also wearing an SPC jersey for the final time, scored 15 and 12 points, respectively.