Lady Texans cruise past Lamar 76-44 Thursday

LEVELLAND — Three Lady Texans scored in double figures Thursday night as the South Plains College women's basketball team cruised past Lamar College 76-44 at the Texan Dome.

South Plains improves to 5-6 on the season and will be back on the floor on Dec. 16 when they take on Ranger College at 5 p.m. MST in Hobbs, New Mexico on the campus of New Mexico Junior College.

"We're getting better," South Plains College head coach Ara Baten said. "We're not anywhere near where we need to be, but we are making progress. If we can continue to grow, we can continue to improve, and that's kind of our objective right now. I thought execution wise tonight, offensively, we had too many lost possessions, but we're getting there, and we had more good possessions."

Celia Sumbane recorded a double-double for South Plains, notching 12 points and a season-high 14 boards over 24 minutes. Sumbane dropped in five of 13 shots from the floor and also recorded a pair of assists and one blocked shot. Vitoria Carvalho finished with a team-high 15 points and seven rebounds, dropping in seven of eight attempts from the field coming off the bench for SPC.

"I think we have to get out and play in space a little bit," Baten said. "I think if we try and grind all the time, it can become difficult for us. Even if we don't score in transition, we just need to put more pressure on the defense. When our bigs play like they did tonight, it softens up everything else on the permitter. We have been waiting on Vitoria to play like she did tonight, and I hope it helps her build some confidence and she continues to play well."

Matilda Soderlund poured in 11 points for South Plains, netting four of nine shots from the field, while Isabella Jaramillo chipped in nine points and three points coming off the bench. South Plains shot a 44.9 percent clip from the floor, knocking down 10 3s in the contest, including six in the second half. South Plains forced 24 turnovers on the defensive end, resulting in 19 points offensively as Lamar shot just 32.1 percent from the floor and was just three of 21 from distance.

"When we can force teams to become concerned about our interior players, it frees up some things for us on the permitter," Baten said. "Our kids were ready when the ball went outside, and they knocked down shots for us tonight. These next two weeks will be very important for our basketball team. When you play as many games as we have played in such a short period of time, you have very limited practice time. We have two weeks where we can come in here and iron out some things that have been causing us problems. If we can come in here and build on the momentum we have and have two good weeks of practice, it will help our team the rest of the way."