MIDLAND, Texas—Find a way to win.
The South Plains College women's basketball team did just that on Wednesday night as the Lady Texans improved to 9-1 on the season and 1-0 in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference with a 69-61 victory over the #11 Midland College Lady Chaparrals at the Al G. Langford Chaparral Center.
"This was a huge team win for us tonight" South Plains head coach Cayla Petree said. "To come into Midland's place against a very good team who's ranked #11 in the country, and getting down five and being able to bounce back was great. I thought the girls did a great job playing tough tonight, and this was a true team win."
South Plains' Yanina Inkina led all scorers with 15 points on 6-of-14 shooting and hauled in six rebounds. Elizabeth Cera finished the contest with 13 points in 39 minutes of action, while Jasauen Beard totaled 10 points and nine boards for the Lady Texans.
"I think a big part of this win was our bench and our subs stepping up for us tonight," Beard said. "We prepared very well, but when we had three starters on the bench in foul trouble, it was our subs who brought us back in the game. We had a shock the world kind of mentality, and we're not the underdogs anymore. A win like this lets u know we can beat anybody any given night."
Following a first quarter which saw the two teams deadlocked at 13, the Lady Chaps would go on to take a 27-22 lead in the locker room at the break.
It didn't last.
South Plains shot lights out in the final 20 minutes as the Lady Texans shot 47 percent from the floor in the third quarter in which they outscored the Lady Chaps 22-11 heading into the final stint.
Inkina found her stroke in the final frame as the 6-1 sophomore from Belarus scored nine of her 15 points in the final 10 minutes. The Lady Texans would outscore Midland 25-23 in the fourth and went on to lead by as much as 11 with 7:28 remaining in the contest.
"We prepared for this game for a very long time," Inkina said. "We worked very hard for this game during practice, and our coaches did a great job with the scouting report. Those reports helped us out a lot, and we all did a great job tonight. We played tough and with energy, because we knew we would have to to win a game like this."
As winners of nine consecutive, the Lady Texans will look to push their winning streak to 10 games when they tipoff with Frank Phillips College on Dec. 3 at 2:00 p.m. at the Texan Dome.