Scott's season-high 20 points lifts Texans past Frank Phillips 74-68 Thursday

BORGER — Jevonnie Scott scored a season-high 20 points, 15 coming in the second half as the South Plains College men's basketball team erased a nine-point halftime deficit to top Frank Phillips College 74-68 Thursday.

With the win, South Plains improves to 13-6 on the season and 5-2 in the WJCAC and will be back on the road on Monday when they travel to Odessa to take on the Wranglers with tip slated for 7:30 p.m.

Trailing 37-28 at the break, South Plains wasted no time coming out of the locker room, utilizing a 10-0 run to begin the final frame and took a 38-37 lead on a layup from Scott with 16:19 to play.  Junior Farquhar would then put the Texans up three, 42-39 with a runner in traffic with 14:29 to go.

Rivaldo Soares would extend the Texans' lead to 53-46 with a jumper from 10 feet, giving South Plains its largest lead of the game with just over 10 minutes remaining. The Plainsmen would answer with a 9-4 run and cut the deficit to two on a pair of free throws from Taylor Cox with just under seven minutes left.

Frank Phillips would then retake the lead, 60-59 on a 3-ball from James McNeil with 4:43 to play, but the Texans would respond yet again as Benjamin Bayela and Farquhar connected on back-to-back jumpers to put South Plains back on top, 63-60. With 48 ticks remaining, the Plainsmen would get within a one, 69-68 on a triple from DJ Richardson from the top of the key.

Following a timeout from Frank Phillips, Bayela would connect one more time with a dagger, bucketing a 3 from the right corner with 21 seconds to play to give the Texans a 72-68 advantage as South Plains completed the comeback and held off the Plainsmen in the final seconds.

Scott finished 8 of 9 from the floor, leading all scorers and also snagged six boards coming off the bench for South Plains. Soares tallied 17 points and a pair of assists, dropping in 7 of 14 shots from the floor over 39 minutes. Farquhar chipped in 15 points, seven rebounds and four assists, connecting on 6 of 9 shots from the field as the Texans shot 50.8 percent from the floor.

Richardson led the Plainsmen with 16 points on 5 of 11 shooting and was 3 of 7 from distance over 27 minutes. McNeil pitched in with 14 points and three boards while Majok Madol netted 11 points as the Plainsmen shot a 40.4 percent clip and were 7 of 28 from distance.