#1 Texans top Clarendon 72-54 Thursday

LEVELLAND — Jabori Mcghee scored a team-high 19 points as the South Plains College men's basketball team exploded in the second half to take down Clarendon 72-54 Thursday night at the Texan Dome, improving to 18-0 on the season and 4-0 in league play.

The Texans will be back on the floor on Monday when they host Howard at 7:30 p.m. at the Texan Dome.

"I'm a defensive guy, and I know when we put our team together, we had a very good chance to be a great defensive team," South Plains head coach Hayden Sowers said. "Clarendon is a very good offensive team, and we weren't playing our best in the front half, and we shot 55 percent in the second half, and we had a relentless approach.

"We talk all the time that we have 13 good players, and you have a guy like Jabori West who gets 14 minutes and goes out and scores seven points. If we can continue to stack good days, we can continue to stack wins. We have another good team coming in here Monday, and we have to be ready every night."

Mcghee finished seven of 15 from the floor over 28 minutes as the Texans shot a 46.6 percent clip from the field in the contest. Malique Ewin netted 14 points, 10 boards, and four assists, dropping in six of 10 shots from the field. Jermahri Hill tallied 13 points, four steals, and two rebounds, while Jabari West provided seven points and six boards coming off the bench for South Plains.

"Coach preaches that we have 13 guys who can all play, and coming out of the half down two, we wanted to figure out their weakness and we came out with some fire and got things going," Mcghee said. "Dior Johnson is a household name, and we wanted him to know we are us, and when he stepped into our gym, he's just another one of us. We tried to make him take tough shots all night, and when you play good players like him, you have to do that."

Clarendon's Dior Johnson led the Bulldogs with 15 points over 32 minutes, as Johnson was just six of 28 from the field and 0-4 from distance. Cortez Johnson finished with nine points and six rebounds for Clarendon, while Lenard Taylor netted eight points and seven rebounds. Clarendon shot just 27.8 percent from the field and was five of 27 from the 3-point line.