Wes Dipprey scored 18 points, J.B. Conley had 17 and Thomas Anguiano made a key 3-point shot as Temple pushed its conference winning streak to six games by defeating the pesky Rangers 81-73 to remain one game behind first-place Weatherford in the Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference.
Earlier, Temple High School graduate Shondria Combs scored 20 points to lead the TC women to an 83-65 win over Ranger, giving the Lady Leopards sole possession of fourth place in the NTJCAC.
TC men 81, Ranger 73
With just less than a minute remaining, Temple had the ball and a three-point lead. If the Leopards had come up empty on their possession and Ranger had gotten the ball back, the Rangers would have had a shot to perhaps tie the game and force overtime.
But Anguiano, whose 3-pointers sparked TC’s comeback win at Hill on Saturday, drained a 3 to push the lead to six and the Leopards sealed it after that to move to 24-2 overall and 8-2 in the NTJCAC with four games remaining.
“We won, but it was a struggle,” said Johnson, whose squad was ranked No. 16 in NJCAA Division I last week but now is unranked despite not losing since Jan. 21 at McLennan. “They (Ranger) played really hard and I was impressed with them. I told our guys, ‘At this point of the season, we just want road wins.’”
Temple led Ranger (0-12, 0-8) only 37-33 at halftime, and the Leopards let the Rangers hang around by shooting just 21-of-36 on free throws. C.J. Richards added 10 points for TC, Dipprey grabbed eight rebounds and Jamar Beasley shot 4-of-6 from the field while providing a second-half spark.
The Leopards next will host rival McLennan at 7:30 p.m. Monday at TC Gym.
TC women 83, Ranger 65
Combs finally got some relief Wednesday. She didn’t need it, though.
“It was closer than the score indicates,” TC coach Kim Sebek said. “We struggled early on but it was a good road win that keeps us in the hunt for the postseason.”
Combs, TC’s starting point guard, has been a workhorse the last two games after an season-ending injury to reserve point guard Kristel Munson and an illness to Alex Pinney left the Lady Leopards (13-11, 7-4) short-handed at the guard position.
Pinney returned to action Wednesday in limited action, giving TC needed depth.
But Combs’ play at guard allowed the inside game to open up. Post Marisa Rauss had 14 points and 12 of TC’s 42 rebounds and forward Mareta Bailey had 11 points.
“We did a great job crashing the boards tonight,” Sebek added. “We just gave up too many 3s. We have to do a better job defending the perimeter.”
Temple returns home to host Cisco at 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
“”We have five games left and three of them are at home,” Sebek said. “It’s critical we get the wins at home and take care of business. We know it won’t be easy because of the parity in this league, but right now everything is in our favor to get into the postseason."
