Texans Hold Off Frank Phillips

LEVELLAND— The South Plains College Texans picked up their seventh win in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference on Monday night following a 77-72 victory over Frank Phillips at the Texan Dome.

The Texans placed four players in double figures including Jerron Love, who finished the game with 14 points and shot 75 percent from the 3-point line. Justice Green would finish the contest with 12 points and six rebounds for South Plains (16-7), while Che Bob and Marlon Jones scored 12 and 11, respectively.

"I think we need to come out and tighten our offense up and talk more on defense," Justice Green said. "Our offense was getting stagnant with the basketball, and we need to run the offense like coach Green sets out for us. We need to make sure we finish our plays and execute, and that's one thing we've been stressing a lot."

The Plainsmen (17-7, 6-4) jumped out to an early six-point lead with 13:41 remaining in the first half, but the Texans would find their stroke and take a 19-18 lead on Roberto Gallinat's 3-pointer from the corner with 9:27 before the break.

Deontae North would connect on a three from the right wing with 4:32 left in the first half and push the Texan's lead to 32-20. South Plains shot 40 percent from the floor in the first 20 minutes and forced the Plainsmen to shoot 32 percent before the break.

The Texans would extend their lead to as much as 15 in the final stint on a bucket from Marlon Jones at the 14:59 mark. Frank Phillips would hang around throughout the second half and eventually cut the Texan's lead to seven with 2:05 remaining.

Ibrahima Diagne hit a jumper with 1:26 left in regulation to push the Texan's lead back to eight, which would be enough in the end to hold off the Plainsmen and help the Texans pick up a crucial conference win.

"I thought we were very very lucky to win, and I didn't think it was one of our better team efforts," South Plains head coach Steve Green said. "We were very very apprehensive. Seemed like from the very beginning we had one little spurt, and got eight to 10 ahead, and we would get to 14 or 15, and we couldn't hold on."

The Texans are now set to face Odessa on Thursday night in Levelland, which coach Green knows will require a resilient effort from his squad.

"We're going to have to play a little bit better than that," Steve Green said. "We're going to have to be aggressive and go try and win a game instead of keep from losing it. We have to grow up and learn. We have to watch this and recognize we didn't bring our best effort."