MESA, Arizona—South Plains College head coach Steve Green has become accustomed to playing, and winning, big games.
You can say the same about the Texans' opponent on Thursday night in the second round of the 2016 Fiesta Bowl Junior College Shootout. When the Texans squared off with the No. 12 Salt Lake Bruins, who are also the defending national champions, something had to give.
And that it did.
The top ranked Texans placed five players in double figures and walked away with an 85-69 victory over the Bruins to improve to 12-0 on the year and advance to the championship round on Friday night.
"We talked about it last night, that if you go back to the last three years of junior college basketball, there's three teams that have played on the final Saturday night," Green said. "You guys are on one of them, and hey, don't look now, one of the other teams is Salt Lake. Nobody has played more junior college basketball than South Plains College and Salt Lake. We've both won two national championships, and we've both been defeated in the finals. I think the guys quietly thought about it and got ready to play."
Roberto Gallinat led the Texans in scoring as the 6-foot-3 sophomore guard from Atlanta totaled 16 points and nine boards in 20 minutes of action. Jordan Brangers and Jahlil Tripp each finished the contest with 14 points for South Plains, while Texas Tech commit Josh Webster totaled 11 points and nine assists in 34 minutes.
"This was a big statement tonight," Tripp said. "Everyone came out tonight to see the number one team in the country and I think we really proved that we are the best team in the country tonight. Them being the defending champs, we definitely wanted to make a statement and I think we did that tonight."
The Texans shot 46 percent from the field over 40 minutes while forcing the Bruins to shoot just 36 percent from the field in the contest. South Plains entered with a definite advantage from the perimeter ranking fourth in the country in total 3-pointers made, yet dominated the interior on Thursday by outrebounding the Bruins 41-28.
South Plains would carry a 44-36 advantage into the locker room after two minutes before going on to lead by as much as 18 with nine minutes left in the second half. Thursday's win is the second double digit victory over a top 15 program this season for the Texans who will look to capture the Fiesta Bowl title for a second straight year when they tipoff against 12-1 Snow Community College at 8 p.m. MST on Friday.
"You learn to trust your players in games like this," Green said. "You learn to trust them and give them some confidence and let them know you have confidence in them. We can't let tonight be the highlight of the trip. Tomorrow is the championship game of this tournament. We won it last year, and it would be nice to take another team picture two years in a row in Phoenix."