Cera scores 25, Smith buckets 22 to lead No. 8 Lady Texans past No. 19 Midland 91-57 Thursday night

LEVELLAND—Elizabeth Cera scored 25 points while Brittany Smith finished with 22 points and eight assists as the No. 8 South Plains College Lady Texans pummeled the No. 19 Midland College Lady Chaps 91-57 on Thursday night at the Texan Dome.

"We just wanted to come out and get a win," Smith said. "In the first game against them I got ejected, and I was just trying to come back with focus and the right mindset to help out my team. My teammates did a great job finding me for open shots, and it feels good to get this win. Our shots were falling and we were doing a good job of taking clean shots. We just used the personnel that our coaches give us and used it to our advantage."

The Lady Texans used a 17-2 run to jump out to a 27-10 advantage with six seconds remaining in the first quarter when Smith weaved her way through traffic and found the bucket. Taylor Holley capped off what became a 27-2 run for the Lady Texans with a 3-ball from the left wing with 7:40 to play before the break to extend the Lady Texans' lead to 37-10. South Plains would go into the break holding a 55-22 lead after shooting 58 percent from the field and 56 percent from the 3-point line in the first half.

"I think we all just came ready to play and were ready for this game tonight," Cera said. "Coach Petree let us know that this was a must-win game for us. We beat them when we played them the first time, but we knew we could play better tonight. We were sharing the ball and running the offense tonight. We played well on defense and did a good job not turning the ball over."

South Pains(21-3, 6-2) continued to have their way with the Lady Chaps(12-8, 3-5) on the offensive end in the second half as they shot 58 percent from the floor and 60 percent from the perimeter in the final stint. The Lady Texans dominated the interior outrebounding their counterparts 34-23 on the glass. Defense creates offense, and that proved to be true once again for South Plains as they forced 20 turnovers in the contest.

"This was a really great team win," South Plains head coach Cayla Petree said. "We've faced a little bit of adversity the last week and it's nice to see our team come together. Everyone did their job and I couldn't be more pleased with every single one of our players. I was really proud of our effort and going out and sticking with the game plan. Nobody tried to do too much. They did the little things right and big things happened."

The Lady Texans will look to stay on course come Monday night when they travel to Borger, TX to take on Frank Phillips College. Tipoff is slated for 5:45 p.m. and can be watched live at spctexans.com