No. 4 Lady T-Birds hold off No. 10 Odessa for key road win

ODESSA, Texas — The No. 4 New Mexico Junior College women's basketball team held off a late charge by the Lady Wranglers and picked up a crucial road win over No. 10 Odessa College 74-67 on Thursday.

A slashing left-handed layup by NMJC's Kelsey Criner with 1:31 remaining made it 72-62 Lady T-Birds (24-1 overall, 11-0 WJCAC) as they seemed to be in control of the contest.

However a trio of free throws and a bucket by Anushka Maldonado in the next 35 seconds made it 72-67 NMJC with 58.4 remaining.

While the Lady T-Birds went just 2-for-6 from the line in the final minute, it was enough to hold off Odessa (22-5, 8-3) and take a two-and-a-half game lead in the conference ahead of the Lady Wranglers and Midland College with three games left for the Lady T-Birds.

"The thing I like is we didn't lose our composure when we could've," NMJC coach Drew Sanders said. "… When you play on the road you have to overcome some adversity and I'm proud of how they handled things. They had a chance to fold and they didn't."

After taking a 33-28 lead into the half, NMJC found itself down 49-46 with less than 13 minutes left in the contest.

But a putback by Antoina Robinson sparked an 8-0 run for the Lady T-Birds to take a 54-49 advantage with 9:15 remaining.

Robinson scored 13 of her game-high 19 points in the second half as the 6-foot-2 sophomore played a huge role in NMJC's victory (she also had six rebounds and three blocks).

"She's starting to settle in," Sanders said of Robinson. "In the offense we were running she wasn't having to post up as much and was catching and shooting, which she is more comfortable with."

The Lady T-Birds led 62-57 when point guard Alana da Silva scored six straight points for the Lady T-Birds to make it 68-57 with 3:06 left.

The freshman da Silva had 11 points and seven assists. Criner added 16 points while Angelica de Paulo had 14 points.

NMJC overcame committing 25 turnovers in the game thanks to outrebounding Odessa 46-31 and holding the Lady Wranglers to 31.4 percent shooting from the field while shooting 53.7 percent itself.

Manesha Womble and Talayiah Rich led Odessa with 14 points apiece.

NMJC travels to take on Midland on Monday.