TDTNews.com - Temple Daily Telegram

The Temple College Leopards will face more difficult challenges this basketball season - much more difficult, in fact - than they did in their opening game.

But Lone Star College-North Harris was the only opponent Temple could face Saturday afternoon at TC Gym, and the Leopards did exactly what they wanted to do - specifically, blow away the Hurricanes.

Matt Addison had 20 points, nine assists and eight steals in his TC debut and veterans J.B. Conley and Chris Ellis scored 19 points apiece to pace eight Leopards in double figures as Temple dominated club team North Harris 141-70.

“This was a nice win,” said TC 22nd-year coach Kirby Johnson, whose team was 27-4 last season. “Obviously North Harris was overmatched, but we appreciate them coming here to play us. In games like this, what I want to see is, Are we running to the right spots? We basically did what we wanted to do today.

“Our sophomores looked comfortable and I’m really pleased with our new guys. There were a lot of positives.”

One of them was former Temple Wildcats standout Russ Permenter, a 6-9 forward who had 15 points and 10 rebounds in his first game with the Leopards after transferring in from Texas-San Antonio.

“It was great,” Permenter said of his debut with Temple. “Everybody had a lot of minutes, and we wanted to get everybody in there and just try to mix it up. I was mainly looking to dominate inside and rebound.”

Added Johnson: “Russ was good and he was strong on the box. It’s what we wanted.”

Also for TC, freshman wing Zach Keal scored 14 points, sophomore forward Jordan Brown had 13, freshman point guard Allyn Cooks added 11 points, seven assists and three steals and sophomore forward Sean Jones had 10 points.

The other four Leopards in uniform - sophomore Davon Morrison and freshmen Adam Guerrero, Marlon Miller (Belton) and Rayland Robinson - combined for 20.

Sophomore wing Ellis (Harker Heights), a returning starter along with Conley from TC’s 27-4 squad, said he was impressed by the Leopards’ teamwork, depth and their trio of point guards - Addison, Cooks and Guerrero.

Then Ellis added a bold statement about his squad’s goal this season.

“I think we’re a national championship team - I know so,” Ellis said. “I’m looking forward to competing against the teams on our schedule and being in hard-nosed games.”

Added Permenter: “That (an NJCAA national title) is definitely a legitimate goal for us. The sky’s the limit.”

Jason Guiton led North Harris - who trailed 77-34 at halftime - with 14 points and Montreal Phillips had 12, but no other Hurricanes reached double figures.

Temple didn’t waste much time in establishing its dominance over North Harris.

Conley’s powerful dunk off an inbounds pass gave TC the lead for good at 5-3, then Ellis and Cooks blitzed the Hurricanes with a series of plays to create a total blowout.

Ellis scored off an airball and turned it into a three-point play; Cooks made an 8-foot floating jump shot; Ellis dunked off a steal; Cooks hit an on-the-run bank shot; and Cooks passed behind his back to Ellis, who coasted in for a layup and made a free three for another three-point play.

Bryan product Cooks was the District 13-5A MVP last season, a year after Permenter won that award with Temple.

After Conley tallied two straight baskets for a 27-9 lead with six minutes gone, Addison - a sophomore from Harker Heights who sat out last season as a redshirt - started to show off his skills. He drove for a layup, then turned two steals in a row into easy layins to make it 33-12.

Permenter began to assert himself inside for close-range baskets, and Conley, Brown (Killeen) and 6-8, 245-pound forward Robinson kept pouring on the offensive firepower to give the Leopards a 43-point advantage at halftime.

And with North Harris simply unable to match Temple’s talent and depth, the Leopards’ lead only grew after the half.

TC will travel to San Antonio to play Lackland Air Force Base on Monday night, then get into the thick of its non-conference schedule with home games against Navarro at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and seventh-ranked San Jacinto at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Said Johnson: “What we have to understand is that it gets harder Monday on the road against older guys, and then we have two tough games at home next week."