Levelland— The South Plains College Lady Texans fell to the ninth-ranked New Mexico Junior College Lady Thunderbirds 73-68 Saturday at the Texan Dome in Levelland.

New Mexico went on a 11-1 run early in the first quarter, but the Lady Texans showed resilience and bounced back to take a 38-30 lead into the locker room at the break.

Despite a valiant effort from South Plains (13-7, 1-3) in the final 20 minutes, the Lady Thunderbirds were able to do just enough to escape with a five-point conference road win and improve to 17-2 on the season.

"I thought our team showed a lot of toughness today after fighting back from that 11-1 start that we had," South Plains head coach Cayla Petree said. "We showed a lot of toughness and I was happy with our effort, obviously we've got to finish games so we can win, but we're definitely moving in the right direction with a lot of young kids doing good things against some really good teams."

The Lady Texans' Elizabeth led all scorers after finishing with 27 points and went 5-for-11 from the three-point line, while Dabraisia Baty knocked down 25 points and dished out five assists for South Plains. Ramiah Henry contributed with four points and three boards for the Lady Texans, and Evelyn Omemmah and Jasmyne Martin each had three points.

New Mexico's Shaniya Mitchell finished the game with 20 points and four rebounds, while Camille Mills scored 14 points and three steals. Daiane Machado finished the contest with 13 points and seven rebounds for the Lady Thunderbirds, while Dezirae Hampton had 10 points and three assists.

South Plains will look to get back in the win column when they travel to Howard on January 14, with tipoff set for 5:45 p.m.