Tough Win; Lady T-Birds roll to 19th straight win

Following a game in which the New Mexico Junior College women's basketball turned the ball over 29 times and still came out with a win, the Lady Thunderbirds' coach Drew Sanders was much more pleased with his team's performance Monday night as NMJC committed just nine turnovers on the way to a 63-49 win over South Plains College.

"As bad as we played the other day, we played really well tonight," Sanders said. "(South Plains) did a really, really good job of defending our post players and made us score in other ways. They made it tough."

South Plains scored first, sinking a free throw about two minutes into the game, but that would be the Lady Texans only lead of the game. Thamires Andrade quickly countered with a trey and NMJC would lead the rest of the way.

By the end of the first quarter, NMJC was in front by 10 points, 19-9.Scoring was slow in the second quarter. NMJC and South Plains College matched each other point for point as both teams scored nine.

The Lady T-Birds began to pull away in the second half, outscoring the Lady Texans 18-14 in the third. NMJC built its lead up to a game-high 21 points with 5:30 left in the fourth. Over the final two minutes of the game, South Plains sank a pair of treys, including one at the buzzer, to get the score to its final point of 63-49.

The only thing Sanders seemed to be disappointed with was that his team allowed South Plains to sink seven treys.

"Defensively, other than giving up some threes, we played really, really well," Sanders said. "But, as far as the focus and the intensity, it was there, (South Plains) just hit some shots."

Jurnee President finished with a game-high 18 points, 12 of which came in the first half. Andrade chipped in 13 points while Alexes Bryant and Danielle Craft each contributed 10. Craft's 10 came while coming in off the bench. Bryant also had game-highs in rebounds (eight) and blocks (five) for the Lady T-Birds. Tatiana Wright finished with eight points, five assists, and four steals.

"Jurnee President stepped up big time in the first half," Sanders said. "Tia right, she played great running the team and communicating and doing what we needed to do at the point."

With the win, the No. 2 ranked Lady Thunderbirds improve to 19-0 on the season and 3-0 in Western Junior College Athletic Conference play. Next up for NMJC is a road game against Clarendon (17-2, 1-2 WJCAC) on Thursday.

"We go to Clarendon. They are 17-2 going into tonight," Sanders said. "It is going to be a really tough game. … This next group of games is really going to test our toughness."