TEMPLE — The South Plains College women's basketball team fell to Temple College 59-51 on Saturday at TC Gymnasium on the campus of Temple Community College.

South Plains' Gabbie Green scored a career-high 23 points as the freshman from Bellville, TX knocked down four 3s in the contest. Maddie Dorris chipped in seven points including five in the second half and Mikayla Kuehne added six.

Temple was led by freshman Kristen Nelson who poured in 17 points, dished out six assists and pulled in five boards. Jamia Miller was 3 of 9 from the field and 5 of 6 from the charity stripe, totaling 12 points and four steals for the Lady Leopards.

Doriana Brown chipped in seven points to go along with seven boards while Alena Johnston finished with five points. She'Anne Ellis-Clayton, Kippi Webb and D'Ashiah Williams each added four points coming off the bench as Temple improved to 8-6 on the year.

Temple jumped out to a 14-5 lead after one quarter and led 32-19 at the midway point as Nelson led all scorers at the half with 12 points and Miller added 10 in the first 20 minutes. Green ended the first half with 10 points including a pair of 3s and Alexis Popham had four points at the break.

South Plains responded in the second half, outscoring the Lady Leopards 15-11 in the third quarter as Chantel Govan and Green combined for 11 points in the third. The Lady Texans outscored Temple 17-16 in the final frame as Green and Dorris combined for 12 in the final frame, but the deficit was too much to overcome as Temple escaped with a win in the final minutes. 

South Plains will look to return to the win column on Monday when they travel to Big Spring for a conference showdown with Howard with tipoff slated for 5:45 p.m. The game will be streaming live at spctexans.com and Michael Wiiest of KLVT Radio Levelland will call the courtside action with pregame beginning at 5:30 p.m.