Strong second half pushes No. 2 South Plains past Coastal Bend 101-74 Saturday at the Texan Dome

LEVELLAND — The second-ranked South Plains College men's basketball team led by just four at the half, but 16 points from sophomore Trey Wade rallied the Texans past Coastal Bend College 101-74 Saturday at the Texan Dome.

South Plains improves to 6-0 with the win and will return to the hardwood Nov. 23-24 at the Thanksgiving Classic at Collin County Community College. The Texans will tipoff against Seminole State at 3 p.m. on Friday, followed by a 3 p.m. tip against Cowley County on Saturday. Both games will be streaming live at spctexans.com.

"At halftime, we tried to concentrate on several things, one being getting hands up on their shooters, and we told them prior to the game they were aggressive and play extremely hard," South Plains head coach Steve Green said. "If you're not ready to play against a team like that you have to be ready to fight, and I think in the second half our bench wore them out and we put some guys in and didn't skip a beat."

Wade's 16 points all came in the final 20 minutes as the 6-foot-8 forward from Marietta, Georgia connected on 6 of 7 shots from the floor including a pair of 3s. Wade also grabbed four boards and a blocked shot in 17 minutes of action. Gaige Prim scored in double figures for the sixth consecutive game, finishing with 27 points, 13 rebounds and a pair of steals as the 6-foot-9 forward was 12-for-20 from the field over 35 minutes.

Australian sharpshooter Jonah Antonio knocked down 6 of 13 attempts to end the contest with 17 points, six rebounds, and two assists and was 5-for-11 from behind the arc. Dajour Joseph netted 13 points off the bench for South Plains, bucketing 5 of 8 attempts and was 2 of 5 from the 3-point line. South Plains shot 52 percent from the floor and 60.6 percent in the second half, knocking down five 3s and were 10-for-11 from the charity stripe.

"Jonah plays really hard on the defensive end, and we brought him in here to be a specialist shooter, and we got a really good defender and a guy who brings a lot of energy to the defense," Green said. "He and Trey Wade are both really good on defense, and that allows our other guys to put a lot of pressure on their man because they know these two have their backs."

South Plains forced the Cougars to shoot just 37.9 percent from the field in the final stint including a 1-for-6 mark from 3. South Plains scored 13 points off 13 forced turnovers and won the battle on the glass 39-29 as the Texans would go on to lead by as much as 29 in the contest.

Brian Payton led Coastal Bend with 16 points on 7 of 8 shooting from the floor while Peyton Hardin tallied 13 and Charles Callier finished with 11 points and five boards.