LEVELLAND — Keke Hunter recorded her eighth double-double of the year netting 15 points and 12 rebounds as the No. 15 ranked South Plains College women's basketball team opened conference play with a 67-62 win over Midland College Wednesday at the Texan Dome.
South Plains improves to 11-1 on the year and 1-0 in the WJCAC and will return to action on Saturday at 2 p.m. against Frank Phillips College in Borger. Saturday's game will be streaming live at spctexans.com and Michael Wiiest of KLVT Radio Levelland will call the courtside action with pregame slated for 1:45 p.m.
"The 3 wasn't really falling for a lot of people and at times we settled for 3-pointers, but we were able to drive and find some shots throughout the game," Hunter said. "Having a nonstop mentality helped us tonight, and coach Petree always tells us to not stop and keep going."
Trailing by nine late in the fourth quarter, Midland used an 8-0 run capped by a 3-pointer from Annilia Dawn to trim their deficit to 63-62 with just 11 seconds remaining. South Plains sophomore Gabbie Green was immediately fouled on the inbounds play, giving the 5-foot-7 guard from Bellville, Texas a chance to put the Lady Texans up three with seconds remaining.
Green would do just that as she knocked down both free throws giving South Plains a 65-62 advantage. Following a timeout by Midland head coach Ron Jones, Petree drew up a defensive masterpiece over the next 60 seconds as Caroline Germond stole the inbounds pass for the Lady Texans and was immediately fouled by Midland's Grace Beasley, sending the freshman from France to the line. Germond would sink both free throws as South Plains would hold off the Lady Chaparrals(8-4) in the closing seconds to extend their win streak to eight games.
"We really wanted to win this game, and all I was focused on was stealing the pass and scoring for our team," Germond said. "In our minds, we weren't panicking when they came back, and we just focused on winning the game and knew what we had to do. Every day we work extremely hard, and doing that every day makes us feel prepared for every situation."
South Plains' Sarah Shematsi led all scorers with 18 points, four rebounds and a pair of assists in 34 minutes of action. Hunter finished 5 of 7 from the floor and also recorded a team-high seven assists. Germond was 5 of 15 from the field and tallied four assists, four steals, and three rebounds while Green finished with seven points, two boards and two assists and Chantel Govan provided six points coming off the bench for South Plains.
Ogechi Nwodo led Midland with 16 points and seven rebounds while Lana Marov finished with 11 and Dawn netted 10 points and four rebounds. South Plains shot 35.8 percent from the floor and forced 25 turnovers in the contest leading to 24 points on the offensive end. Midland shot 39.7 percent from the floor and were 10 of 25 from the 3-point line.