Temple and Austin Anderson went up and down the floor with reckless abandon in non-district boys action, but the Wildcats were considerably more proficient as they claimed an 81-63 victory over the Trojans.
The victory - earned by a high-intensity effort and solid shooting - improved Temple to 7-11 for the campaign and kept the Wildcats on the course that veteran coach Bruce Etheridge has mapped out for his team.
“Our goal is to win all four of our games before the end of the holiday break,” he said of a time period that will find the Wildcats playing at Georgetown (Dec. 29) and Copperas Cove (Jan. 2) and then returning home to resume District 13-5A play against Killeen Shoemaker (Jan. 4).
Thursday’s showing was a drastic reversal of the Wildcats’ performance Tuesday in an 81-52 district loss at College Station A&M Consolidated that was the result of turnovers, ineffective rebounding and poor shooting.
“We play totally different at home,” Etheridge said. “I guess that’s the mark of a young team. Tonight, we came out and played with confidence.”
Things were much different in Thursday’s edition of helter-skelter. Temple put down 32 of 56 shots from the floor, stayed within sight of the Trojans on the boards and didn’t overly fuel Anderson (5-11) with floor errors.
The Wildcats showed considerable improvement in two areas - the shooting of sophomore Bron Etheridge and senior D.J. Wright and the baseline play of sophomore forward Eric Valdez.
Etheridge and Wright, using the 3-point shot as major currency, finished with 20 and 17 points, respectively, while Valdez, who went hard to the bucket, added 18.
The Temple offensive total featured 10 successful 3-point shots, including five by Wright and three by Etheridge, who also penetrated for some short jumpers.
“We got good games from Bron and D.J. and we also received good play at the point,” Bruce Etheridge said. “Eric, who didn’t stop himself tonight, played well within the context of what we want at the low post.”
Senior post James Gude and senior guard Jeff Hodges, who didn’t score in the loss to Consolidated, had six and seven, respectively, and played aggressively.
Despite falling behind 7-1, the Wildcats were up 26-17 after the first quarter as they hit on 10 of their first 15 shots. The Trojans cut the margin to 41-33 by halftime, but Temple regained complete control by outscoring Anderson 18-7 during the first 6:30 of the third quarter.
Temple led 61-45 after three quarters and never allowed Anderson to work itself closer than 12 points in the fourth.
The Trojans, who shot 27-of-71 from the floor but took a 36-29 edge on the boards, were led by 6-4 senior Danny Gregen’s 21 points. Jake Reynolds, who did much of his damage on putbacks, finished with 18 points.
“He’s a pretty good player and did a good job,” Etheridge said of Gregen.
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