MIDLAND — The third-ranked South Plains College men's basketball team used a 41 point second half to oust Midland College 70-60 on Wednesday in the Western Junior College Athletic Conference opener at the Al G. Langford Chaparral Center.
The Texans improve to 6-3 on the year and 1-0 in conference play and will host Frank Phillips College at 3:45 p.m. on Saturday at the Texan Dome.
"I thought Midland really played well and ran their offense and kept us down there on the defensive end the majority of the night," South Plains head coach Steve Green said. "We held them to 60 points and that's something we will take any night. Offensively, we finally figured out we have a guy taller than anyone else and started to going to him more and more."
Isaiah Maurice led all scorers as the 6-foot-10 transfer from Kansas State recorded 25 points on 10 of 13 shooting to go along with six boards and a pair of blocked shots. Texas Tech commit Deshawn Corprew chipped in 17 points on 7 of 8 shooting and also handed out five assists in 21 minutes. Sophomore Jordan Brangers totaled 13 points and seven boards over 40 minutes and South Carolina transfer Raymond Doby added eight points and eight boards off the bench for South Plains.
"My guys helped me get in good position and find the ball," Maurice said. "We were playing for the second pass and kept our heads up to create space and attack with the ball. We kind of let them do what they wanted in the first half and made some adjustments at the half to meet them at half court and slow down their tempo and get the ball back to our offense."
South Plains shot 40 percent from the field in the front half and held the Chaps (3-7, 0-1) to an 18 percent shooting mark from 3 in the first 20 minutes. The Texans bucketed 12 points off 12 Midland turnovers and had their way in the paint outscoring their counterpart 44-28 on the glass.
"The first shot defense was fine, but the next thing we have to do is come up with some loose balls and defensive rebounds," Green said. "We have a tendency to slap it around and the other team comes up with the ball and gets another shot. We definitely have a lot of work to do and have a tough road ahead of us as the season goes on."
South Plains outscored the Chaps 41-26 in the back half thanks to a 64 percent shooting mark from the field. Midland was just 9 of 27 from the floor in the second half and 3 of 12 from behind the arc. Corprew scored 15 in the final stint on 6 of 7 shooting to go along with four assists. Midland's Marquell Fraser led the Chaps with 19 points and seven boards in 38 minutes. Amari Hale totaled 14 points including three 3s and Kevin Kangu chipped in nine points on 4 of 8 shooting from the floor.