No. 2 South Plains improves to 5-0 with 84-55 victory over North Lake Friday

LEVELLAND — Gaige Prim scored 19 points and hauled in seven rebounds while Chris Orlina went off for 14 points, five assists and four steals as the second-ranked South Plains College men's basketball team routed North Lake College 84-55 Friday night at the Texan Dome.

South Plains improves to 5-0 on the season and will return to the hardwood on Saturday at 2 p.m. against Coastal Bend College at the Texan Dome. The game will be streaming live at spctexans.com and Michael Wiiest of KLVT Radio Levelland will call the courtside action.

"We looked at the stats at halftime and we were winning in all categories, but we thought we should have been further ahead," South Plains head coach Steve Green said. "We had some fouls that took some shots away on the offensive end, but all in all we are still trying to find some combinations of who to play together, and it's going to be ragged for a while."

Prim ended the night 6-for-9 from the floor in 22 minutes of action as the 6-foot-9 forward from Aurora, Colorado scored in double figures for the fifth consecutive game. Orlina knocked down six of his nine attempts from the field while Jonah Antonio chipped in with 13 points, four boards and three steals, bucketing five of 13 attempts including a trio of 3s.

Dajour Joseph scored nine points coming off the bench for South Plains including a 3-for-3 mark from the perimeter in 11 minutes of action. South Plains' Trey Wade netted nine points and five boards while Christian Wilson bucketed seven points for the Texans.

South Plains finished 30-71 from the floor (42.3%) and including a 13-31 (41.9%) from the 3-point line. The Texans committed just eight turnovers while forcing 16 turnovers in the contest resulting in 18 points on the offensive end. The Texans received 23 points off the bench and went on to lead by as much as 35 as they forced North Lake (1-5) to shoot just 36.2 percent from the field and 36.8 percent from behind the arc.

"I think as the game wore on our size and quickness impacted them a little bit," Green said. "I don't think we were extremely sharp at the beginning, and I think we really need to improve on that side of the ball. We're going to have to play better tomorrow, and hopefully, we can get off to a better start against Coastal Bend."

Sophomore Brady Boyd led the Blazers with 11 points including three 3s in 28 minutes of play. Seyi Imade netted 10 points and five rebounds for North Lake while Hunter Whitcher finished with 10 points coming off the bench and Isaiah Pittman netted nine points as was 2-for-2 from long range.