Thunderbirds stun Texans in Caster
EDUARDO MIRANDA NEWS-SUN
February 15, 2019
NMJC's Deion Rhea protects the ball as he goes up for a layup in the paint against the seventh ranked South Plains Thursday night. The Thunderbirds went into the half leading by five, 31-26.
The New Mexico Junior College men's basketball team welcomed seventh ranked South Plains College to Caster Activity Center Thursday night and did so undermanned as the Thunderbirds had two players out.
The T-Birds were looking to bounce back from their loss to Western Texans College Monday night.
After 40 minutes NMJC stunned the seventh ranked team, winning 78-68, in front its home crowd.
"Its big time," NMJC coach Luke Adams said on beating the Texans. "This is one of the best conferences in the country. I sell them on that and on what we want to build here. Its great to see that happen in year one and we aren't even close to where we want to be, and I'm excited."
Both teams played a slow paced first half game that ended 31-26 in favor of the home team. The T-Birds attacked an athletic Texans team with ball rotation on the perimeter to open up shooters. NMJC added a top post play looking to use the speed of its guards on the back cuts to find open layups or get the bigs of South Plains in foul trouble.
The T-Birds low post offense saw Gideon George and Deion Rhea battle the Texans bigs. Both players fought for offensive rebounds earning nine by the end of the half, and creating 10 points on second chances. Darnell Rogers the sole ball handler did an amazing job fighting to get into the paint and set up his teammates for scoring opportunities.
On the defensive end the T-Birds were looking to eliminate the Texans height and length advantage. The undersized T-Birds made sure to limit offensive rebounds and second chances by boxing out all night with the Texans. It limited South Plains to only four offensive rebounds for just four second chance points.
NMJC went into the half leading 31-26.
During the second half, both teams looked to outscore one another. The Texans looked to create space by playing with three players on the perimeter, one at the free throw line, and the center at the low post. The offense was designed to create space for shooters by getting the Thunderbirds to collapse on the free throw line, where the player could send it out to a shooter on the perimeter. When the collapse did not come South Plains had an open shot from the elbow or a drive in the lane.
The T-Birds saw the Texans offense work as their lead at the half disappeared in the first three minutes, forcing a timeout. After the time out NMJC made the necessary adjust at the defense to eliminate easy baskets. The T-Birds on the defense had one player rotate to the elbow and force a contested shot or pass back to the perimeter and a reset of the offense.