Lady Texans win 5th straight with 82-54 drumming of Phoenix College

LEVELLAND, Texas—Five straight.

Yanina Inkina scored 21 points while Brittany Smith finished with 15 as the South Plains College Lady Texans throttled the Phoenix College Lady Bears 82-54 on Saturday to pick up their fifth consecutive win in as many games.

"We came out with a lot of energy and were clicking on all cylinders," Smith said. "We played well as a team today and our chemistry is flowing right now, so we need to stay focused and keep things rolling. We picked up our fifth straight win, and it feels good to be playing this well early in the season."

South Plains jumped out to an 11-3 lead following a 3 from Smith from the right wing early in the first quarter. The Lady Texans continued the assault with a 14-3 run capped off by a layup from Smith with 4:01 reaming in the first period. A pair of free throws from Inkina with 1:22 left before the half pushed South Plains' lead to 39-19.

"We picked up a good win yesterday against Dallas Diesel and came out and beat another good team today," Inkina said. "We stayed focused and did what our coaches told us to do. It feels good to win five in a row, but we need to keep playing hard and keep working to build on winning a championship."

South Plains continued to execute on offense and extended its lead to 22 following a jumper from Daria Vatrushkina with less than a minute remaining in the third quarter. Inkina found the net on a 3 from the top of the key to push the lead to 67-46 with 6:38 remaining in the contest.

The Lady Texans shot 46 percent from the field and 44 percent from the perimeter on Saturday. South Plains smothered the Lady Bears on defense forcing 23 turnovers as Phoenix shot just 27 percent from the field.

"This was another good team win for us today," South Plains head coach Cayla Petree said. "Our bench came in and gave us some significant minutes, as we really stress in not having any drop off when substitutions are made. I felt like today was the first time we were able to sustain that momentum both offensively and defensively. This was a really good win for us against a really good team."

South Plains will be back in action on Monday at 6 p.m. when they tipoff with West Texas Drive at the Texan Dome. All games can be watched live at spctexans.com using the 'Watch Games' tab.