#8 Lady Texans outlast Dodge City 66-59

LEVELLAND — Celia Sumbane and Vitoria Carvalho combined for 27 points and 12 boards as the eighth-ranked South Plains College women's basketball team outlasted Dodge City 66-59 Saturday afternoon at the Texan Dome.

South Plains improves to 2-0 on the season and will square off with #6 Blinn College on Monday at 5 p.m. at the Dome.

"You have to give a lot of credit to Dodge City, they had a nice game plan today," South Plains College head coach Ara Baten said. "They are tough to deal with, they play different, and they are very well coached. They gave us some problems, and schematically I didn't do a very good job. They kept us off of balance all game long, and I have to do a better job putting our players in a better position to be able to more effective."

South Plains led 37-28 at the half and quickly extended its lead to 16, 46-30 on a 3 from Sumbane at the 7:28 mark of the third quarter. Dodge City responded with a 20-5 run to trim the deficit to just one, 51-50 on a jumper from Georgia Cray with 7:45 left to play in the fourth quarter.

South Plains answered back with a 10-2 run over the next four minutes to push their lead to nine, 61-52 with 3:44 remaining on a layup from Celia Sumbane. Dodge City would get as close as four, 61-57 following a 3 from Jenna'Rose Mafua with under two minutes to go, but it wouldn't be enough as the Lady Texans extended their lead back to nine, 66-57 on a pair of free throws from Dabria Blackwell with seven ticks left.

"Our defense was inconsistent, and that's on me," Baten said. "I didn't do a good job getting into our bench in the second half, and I need to rotate more people in. I did think we have some great possessions, but we weren't consistent on the glass, and part of that is not using our bench more, and that's on me."

Sumbane finished with a team-high 15 points, five boards, four steals, and three blocked shots, connecting on 6 of 14 shots from the floor over 36 minutes. Carvalho netted 12 points and snagged a team-high seven rebounds, dropping in 6 of 8 shots from the field.

Jennifer Silva provided 12 points in 24 minutes coming off the bench for SPC, while Daisha Brown chipped in 11 points, pulled in six rebounds, handed out four assists, and picked four steals in the contest.

South Plains shot a 42.9 percent clip from the field and forced 17 turnovers defensively, resulting in 14 points on the offensive end. South Plains controlled the interior, pouring in 38 points inside the paint, and received 22 points from its bench.

"We're not going to have any easy wins for the rest of the season," Baten said. "Every game we will play will be tough, and its good for us to play in games like this. It's good for us to face adversity, and we didn't play our best, but we responded and this was a quality win for our team."