LEVELLAND — Kieves Turner surpassed the 30-point mark for the third time in as many games Monday as the South Plains College men's basketball team routed Western Texas College 95-63 at the Texan Dome.
SPC improves to 11-7 on the season and 4-1 in league play and will travel to No. 21 Odessa on Thursday, with tip slated for 7:30 p.m. The contest will stream live at spctexans.com and can be heard locally on KLVT Radio AM1230.
"We started on our heels tonight, and were content to stay in front of them in the press," South Plains head coach Steve Green said. "Some teams it works against, and some teams it doesn't. I told them at halftime to go get after them and make them play faster, and we would take our chances."
That move turned out to be a good one as South Plains outscored Western Texas 55-27 in the second half after leading 40-36 at the midway point. Turner led all scorers with 34 points, connecting on 11 of 14 shots from the floor, and was a perfect 7 of 7 from the free throw line over 29 minutes. Turner would also rack up four assists and a pair of steals, and finished 5 of 7 from the 3-point line.
Savion Gallion recorded 13 points, seven rebounds, and three assists for South Plains, while Khalifa Sakho made things difficult for the Westerners on the inside, snagging five boards and also recorded a season-high five blocked shots for SPC.
"Khalifa has impeccable timing, and he is the best shot blocker I have ever coached," Green said. "We have had some good players here, and he reminds me of Bo Outlaw. Just quick off his feet and can block shots. He has great defensive instincts, and gets way up there."
Jaylin Reed chipped in 11 points over 17 minutes off the bench, while Tytan Newton notched eight points, five boards, and five assists over 22 minutes. South Plains shot a 47.1 percent clip from the floor, drained 10 of 24 shots from distance, and converted 21 of 24 attempts from the free throw line.
"This was Tytan's best offensive game of the year," Green said. "He started off slow and missed a couple of baskets for us, and he's another guy who can't play a slow game. I thought we were bad defensively in the first half and played our man safe and played scared. In the second half, we kind of scrambled the game up and made some changes."