Instead the questions surrounding the Lady Leopards were: Could they score 100? Would every member of the team score? Who would lead the team in scoring? And can they keep their focus for the entire game?
Marisa Rauss scored 19 points in a game that did feature every Lady Leopard scoring in a 98-64 win over the Lady Rams.
“I didn’t anticipate being able to put that many points on the board tonight,” said Sebek, whose team was coming off a 71-65 loss at rival McLennan on Monday. “But we knew we had to protect our home court and we did that tonight.”
Temple improved to 10-9 overall and 4-2 in Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference women’s basketball play. SWCC fell to 8-10, 1-5.
For her part, Sebek kept the Lady Leopards focused on playing fundamental basketball to the very end, not worrying about the final score.
“I didn’t at any point talk about getting to 100,” she said. “My main concern was the win. Hitting 100 is not one of our goals. Winning is.”
Temple secured the win pretty early. After only playing to a 5-5 tie in the first two minutes, the Lady Leopards went on an 18-2 run during the next six - highlighted by two easy inside baskets by Rauss and a 3-pointer by Alex Pinney - to take a 23-7 lead and effectively put the game on cruise control.
All Temple really had to do was force the Lady Rams - and specifically Courtney Dixon - inside because the Rams have one of the top 3-point-shooting teams in the conference.
Dixon found herself open several times in the first half, during which she scored 15 of her game-high 24 points. She hit three of six 3-point attempts but was only 4-of-18 from inside the arc, grabbing a big portion of her remaining points from the free-throw line.
“We knew she was one of their main returners,” Sebek said. “I didn’t think we’d let her get as free as we did in the first half. For her to score 15 in the half is a lack of defense on our part. But we made some changes at halftime to slow her down a bit.”
Temple led 49-32 at halftime, and Sebek made sure to use the second half to get all of her players plenty of playing time.
Point guard Kristel Munson was the last Lady Leopard to score, hitting a short shot with just over 8 minutes left in the game.
Along with Rauss, who also had 10 rebounds, Pinney had 17 and Temple High School product Shondria Combs finished with 14 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds.
“Shondria is a heads-up player,” Sebek added. “Tonight we finally started catching some of her passes and converting them.
“Alex can sometimes be unconscious. She just gets the ball and the first thing she does is look for the shot. She did a good job getting 17 for us.”
Especially because she spent a good portion of the second half on the bench, along with most of TC’s starters.
It was up to the reserves to see if they could get the Lady Leopards to 100 for the first time since a 105-27 win over Wayland Baptist’s junior varsity in the season’s opening weekend.
They had the opportunity, with the ball and 18.7 seconds left. Emma Sutten had a decent look at the basket from just inside the free-throw line with just under 10 seconds, but as the defense closed in the shot fell just short, leaving the team two points short.
It was about the only shot that didn’t fall, and Sutten already had earned a personal achievement earlier when she scored her first 3-pointer of the season. And Sebek was still proud that her team kept poised and didn’t try to force anything just to get to 100.
“I thought when Southwestern switched to a zone late, that’s the most patient we’ve been,” Sebek said. “We waited for the shot and executed well against it. That’s a plus because we’ve had issues against zone several times this year.
“We really needed this game to get our momentum back,” Sebek said. “To come in and play like this after a tough loss - it was a big win for us.”
Temple will host Grayson County at 2 p.m. Saturday.
