Andrea Johnson scored 24 points and Marisa Rauss added 22 as Temple cruised to a 93-65 victory in a Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference game at TC Gym on Saturday.
“It was just an exciting, great win on a dreary Saturday,” TC coach Kim Sebek said. “I can’t be more pleased with the girls.”
The Lady Leopards (14-11, 8-4 NTJCAC) - wearing pink shoelaces and pink warm-up tops as part of the “Think Pink” campaign to raise breast cancer awareness - went to the inside early, taking advantage of Rauss’ and fellow post Mareta Bailey’s height and athleticism. The duo combined for 11 of TC’s first 13 points as the Lady Leopards grabbed a 13-11 lead 5 minutes into the game.
Temple used the strong inside play to its advantage on its next possession. Rauss had the ball in the lane, but instead of going for a turnaround jumper, she found Johnson open at the top of the key for an easy 3-pointer and a five-point lead.
It was an effective way of letting the Lady Wranglers (10-16, 4-8) know that they couldn’t focus solely on stopping Rauss and Bailey, who finished with 13 points. And with Cisco faced with having to stop a perimeter game as well, the Lady Leopards quickly built the lead to 10 points, then took a 44-35 lead into the half.
“We went inside quite a bit in the first half and that opened it up for the outside,” Sebek said. “I’ve told the girls that we have to have an inside-out mentality. Today we got in a groove where we were scoring both in the paint and along the perimeter.”
Cisco had a good offensive first half as well, getting key 3s from Jennifer Lopez and Ana Migueres when it needed them, so it wasn’t until the second half that TC was able to pull away.
In the first five minutes of the second half, TC could seemingly do no wrong and went on a 16-2 run - with all 16 points coming from the Rauss, Bailey, Johnson trio - to effectively put the game out of reach.
“We finally got a run on them in the second half to spread the lead,” Sebek said. “We were able to do some things we haven’t been doing. We did a better job with ball distribution, sharing, and reversal today.”
Along with TC’s dominant trio, Brittany Bryant added 14 points, and Alex Pinney added 11.
“We had five players in double figures and that shows how well we were distributing the ball and getting things we needed done offensively,” Sebek said. “Everyone was able to contribute in some fashion today.”
Defensively, the Lady Leopards focused on stopping top Cisco scorers Migueres and Lopez. The duo combined for 26 points and was ineffective much of the second half.
“We knew coming in that they were scrappy,” Sebek said. “We knew they wouldn’t go down without a fight, even though they are in the bottom half of the conference standings.”
The Lady Leopards will host McLennan at 5 p.m. Monday and Sebek said despite it being a big game, they haven’t thought about it until now.
“One of the girls mentioned McLennan (before Wednesday’s game against Ranger),” she said. “I told her, ‘No. We aren’t talking about MCC yet. We have to focus on Ranger then Cisco first.’”
McLennan has yet to lose a conference game and could clinch a postseason berth with a win on Monday.
“We have one day to prepare,” Sebek said. “We have to come in and start talking about some things. I think today we looked really sharp and we have to carry the same momentum and energy into Monday’s game. If we have this kind of intensity and this kid of performance we will be OK.
“We played them tough up there and I don’t think we played our best basketball game.”
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