Posted: Feb 26, 2012
LEVELLAND - The South Plains College Texan and Lady Texan basketball teams will play their regular season home finale Monday, February 27 when they host the Western Texas College Westerners at the Texan Dome. South Plains College will say goodbye to four Lady Texan and seven Texan sophomores who will be playing for the final time inside the confines of the Texan Dome. Live video will be available for both games at www.spctexans.com.
Holiday Inn Express of Levelland is the sponsor of Monday's games and have donated two Kindle Fire's to be given to a lucky fan at both men's and women's halftimes as well as t-shirts that will be thrown to the crowd during the game. Complimentary tickets for the 5:45 p.m. and 7:45 p.m. tip-offs can be picked up by visiting the lobby of the Holiday Inn Express located on Highway 114 in Levelland.
The Texans survived their ninth game playing as the top-ranked team in the NJCAA when they rallied to defeat Howard College 72-60 Thursday night in Big Spring. South Plains found themselves in a 15-2 hole to begin the game and trailed by nine points at halftime. They ran away with the game in the second half, outscoring the Hawks 50-29 to clinch their first Western Junior College Athletic Conference (WJCAC) championship since 2007 and 11th in school history.
South Plains (27-0, 12-0) now sets their sights on completing an undefeated regular season schedule and will first face a Westerner team they defeated 83-62 February 2 in Snyder. The Westerners (14-14, 2-10) have lost nine straight games played, not including the game Midland was forced to forfeit on February 20.
If the Texans get past Western Texas, they will have an opportunity to run the table and finish the season without a loss when they play their regular season finale at the New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell. Winning the next two games would also match the longest winning streak in school history. Coach Steve Green's 2002-03 squad won 29 in a row after a 2-2 start. The 1990-91 team also had a 29 game winning streak.
Monday's game mark's the season finale for the Lady Texans and a win would secure a berth to next month's Region 5 tournament in Lubbock. The Lady Texans soundly defeated Western Texas 51-31 earlier in the month in Snyder, but were also defeated by the Lady Westerners 58-56 during December's WJCAC pre-conference tournament.
The SPC women squandered an opportunity to clinch a post-season spot when they lost to Howard 57-50 Thursday night in Big Spring.
Before the games, South Plains will honor the contributions of the 11 sophomores who will be playing in the Texan Dome for the final time. Playing in the final home game of their Texan career is Deshaunt Walker, Derrell Edwards, Stanton Kidd, Marshall Henderson, Tymell Murphy, Greg Gainey, and Malcolm Miller.
For the Lady Texans Ashley Roberts, Avril Matthews, Raely Parada, and Stephanie Moorewill play one last time.