Coach Kirby Johnson can take solace in the fact that his Leopards still managed to win by 52 points.
Ervin Johnson scored a game-high 22 points, Jordan Brown had 20, four of their teammates reached double figures and Temple used its active press defense to collect 37 turnovers as the Leopards cruised to a 124-72 victory over Cy-Fair College on Thursday night at refurbished TC Gym.
“It looked like a first game,” said Johnson, whose 21st Leopards squad carries nine freshmen and only three sophomores. “In our last two scrimmages we played better than we did tonight. That’s surprising to me, but we do have nine new freshmen.
“The guys might have been a little nervous tonight,” he added. “It’s good to get a win, but obviously we’ll have to play a lot better Saturday to beat Navarro (in a 4 p.m. home game).”
Four other TC freshmen scored in double digits. Jermon Foreman contributed 14 points, Chris Ellis (Harker Heights) had 12, J.B. Conley supplied two rim-rattling dunks en route to 11 and Sean Jones added 10.
Sophomore returner Johnson grabbed 11 rebounds, sophomore transfer C.J. Richards had nine assists and nine steals, LaDon Huckaby snared six steals and sophomore returner Thomas Anguiano made five. Also, Brown (Killeen), Ellis and Wes Dipprey grabbed seven rebounds apiece.
Cy-Fair, whose Fightin’ Ducks compete at the club level and whose players all are from the greater Houston area, was led by Brandon Allen’s 17 points. Nate Broussard had 14 and Triston Grounds and Joe Nobles each added 10.
Although the Leopards weren’t as sharp as they or their coach wanted, they essentially won the game in the first eight minutes.
Huckaby’s inside basket gave Temple the lead for good at 7-5 with 3½ minutes gone. That sparked a 20-0 run that included two close-range buckets by Johnson and featured two Foreman hoops in five seconds, including a one-handed slam following a steal.
“We played real well for a minute or two at a time,” said Kirby Johnson, who attributed the strong game of 6-6 forward Ervin Johnson to the experience he gained as a reserve on last season’s 23-8 team that shared the Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference championship.
Richards hit a 3-pointer for back-to-back baskets, and one of his steals led to Conley’s strong alley-oop dunk for a 36-10 advantage 8:30 before halftime.
Cy-Fair started to score more often, but it also continued to struggle with careless turnovers as TC built a 54-31 lead by the break.
The Leopards seized complete control early in the second half. Conley scored twice inside, Brown delivered three baskets in less than a minute and Foreman added a lay-in and a 3 as the lead expanded to 79-41 with 12:46 remaining.
Conley’s athletic, one-handed dunk off a missed outside shot pushed Temple over the 100-point mark and supplied fans with coupons for free chicken sandwiches on “Chick-fil-A Night.”
All in all, TC’s coach saw plenty of positives from his young team - and also plenty of things to work on.
“Our press did a good job and our inside guys did a good job,” Johnson said. “We have to get better shooting, because tonight we relied on putbacks. We didn’t shoot the 3 well, but we’ll be a good 3-point-shooting team.”
