ARTICLE BY CHRIS AMAYA|ODESSA AMERICAN

The Odessa College women's basketball team ran into one of the toughest challenges it has faced in the 2021-22 campaign: South Plains College.

Despite some positive stretches, the Lady Wranglers couldn't find a rhythm and fell by a 95-57 score in Western Junior College Athletic Conference play Thursday at the OC Sports Center.

"A lot of the little things that we've been talking about in practice, we see it in the game," Odessa College women's coach Franqua Bedell said. "It's something that you try to teach them and I just can't get them to buy in wholeheartedly to what it takes."

Bedell added that he felt his team did what it needed to do defensively in the first quarter but couldn't replicate that effort later in the game.

It was a close affair early in the first quarter, as both teams traded the lead four times before South Plains used a 7-0 scoring run to briefly pull away.

Odessa College outscored the Lady Texans 8-2 to close out the first period, tying the game up with a Jessie Dai 3-pointer from the top of the key as the clock wound down.

South Plains, coached by former Odessa College coach Ara Baten, took over the momentum by taking advantage of key turnovers and misses from the Lady Wranglers early in the second quarter.

Early in the game, Odessa College converted 50% of its shot attempts and maintained a consistent tempo on defense to keep its opponent close.

The second quarter was less kind to the Lady Wranglers, as they made one shot and were outscored 33-5 in the period.

South Plains' Vitoria Carvalho and Odessa College's Lala Niankan each had 10 points each at the end of the first half to lead their teams.

The Lady Wranglers came out of the break with renewed energy and started slowly chipping away at the Lady Texans' 28-point lead.

A more aggressive approach and nine points from Niankan helped Odessa College outscore the Lady Texans 13-8 in the third quarter's first six minutes.

South Plains put everything back together by the end of the period, feeding off the energy created by late shots from Martyna Czescik and Viktoria Ivanova.

The Lady Texans continued creating space and finding efficient shots in the fourth quarter to maintain their undefeated mark in conference play.

It was Odessa College's third straight loss and it was one of the largest deficits the Lady Wranglers have fallen by this season.

"To a lot of other team's credit, we've been playing against a lot of sophomores and three-year kids," Bedell said. "It's a little frustrating, but I'm staying true to who I am. We're going to press, we're going to do all those things and I'm really focusing on building the culture."

Odessa College's last victory came against Western Texas College on Jan. 6.

Niankan led the Lady Wranglers with 21 points, followed closely by Dai's 15.

The Lady Wranglers (4-14 overall, 1-5 conference) will host Howard College at 5:45 p.m. Monday at the OC Sports Center.

Bedell said he is still shooting for his goal of reaching the NJCAA Region V tournament at the end of the season.

"That's what I'm fighting for, I know it's hard for them to kind of see that with all the losses," Bedell said. "We're going to fight for it."