No. 16 Lady Texans fall to No. 21 Midland College 58-55 Wednesday in conference opener

MIDLAND — The No.16 South Plains College women's basketball team fell to No. 21 Midland College 58-55 on Wednesday in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference opener at the Al G. Langford Chaparral Center.

Now 10-2 on the year and 0-1 in conference play, the Lady Texans will host Frank Phillips College on Saturday at 2 p.m. at the Texan Dome.

"We knew it would be difficult to win down here," South Plains head coach Cayla Petree said. "It's a tough place to play and they are a well coached team. Every night in our league Is a battle and tonight was no different. It was a one possession game and came down to the final play despite our slow start at the beginning of each half."

Freshman Gabbie Green scored a team-high 15 points on 6 of 16 shooting to go along with three steals and three rebounds coming off the bench for South Plains. Lubbock native Chelsea Hunter chipped in 12 points, grabbed six rebounds and handed out four assists in 38 minutes for the orange and blue.

Midland's (6-5, 1-0) Alexandrea Washington led all scorers with 22 points including six 3s and seven rebounds.  Ella Tofaeono scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds off the bench for the Lady Chaps and Bethany Theodore pitched in with nine points, five assists, and four boards.

"We knew what we had to do and things just didn't go our way tonight," Green said. "We didn't execute a lot of the things we've been working on and we definitely have a lot we can work on. Coach Petree had us ready, and a loss like this is all part of growing up and learning to overcome these type of obstacles. We have to learn from this and trust the process, and if we do that we can always find ways to get better."

Both teams struggled to find a rhythm on the offensive end in the first half as they combined for just 27 points at the midway point.  The two offenses would finally find pay dirt in the second half as the Lady Texans shot 50 percent from the field in the third quarter and the Lady Chaps knocked down five 3s out of the break.  

South Plains' La'Praisjah Johnson and Green combined for 12 points in the final 10 minutes but would come up short as Midland shot 55 percent from the field and was 7 of 12 from the charity stripe in the final quarter.