His team had just dropped its second straight District 12-5A game, a 53-48 overtime loss to No. 8 Killeen Ellison on Friday night at Wildcat Gym, yet a slight smile crept across Thomas’ face.
“Games like this help you as a coach see where your guys are growing mentally,” first-year coach Thomas said. “I feel like we’ve grown some. We still have a long ways to go, but we’ve grown.”
In what was no doubt a gut-check game for these young Wildcats, they played some of their best basketball of the season.
Temple (7-11, 1-2) held high-scoring Ellison (17-4, 2-1) to its lowest offensive output in district, leading nearly the entire way until overtime. But in the end it wasn’t enough, the same problems that have plagued the Wildcats in close games before - missed free throws and turnovers - proved to be Temple’s undoing this time, too.
The Wildcats’ tough stretch continues Tuesday at home against No. 16 Bryan.
“We came up short,” Thomas said. “We had some opportunities down the stretch. We just have to learn how to play down the stretch.”
After a layup by Erik Valdez (game-high 15 points) and a 3-pointer by D.J. Wright gave the Wildcats a 45-43 lead with 3:19 left in regulation, the Wildcats missed the front end of two one-and-one free throw situations. Ellison tied the game at 45 with 36 seconds left after a toss at the basket by Darian Clemons. A fadeaway jumper by Temple’s Lache Seastrunk at the buzzer missed, sending the game into overtime.
The Wildcats made crucial mistakes in the fourth quarter and overtime period. Temple made just one of six free throws and committed six turnovers, allowing Ellison to take the lead for good.
The Eagles escaped Wildcat Gym with a win despite shooting less than 35 percent and committing 16 turnovers.
“Sometimes you have to win the ugly wins,” Ellison coach Alberto Jones Jr. said.
It was plenty ugly for most of the first half for Ellison, which trailed by as many as 11 points.
Jones knew after his team’s pregame shootaround that the Eagles needed to take advantage of their height advantage inside, seeing his team brick off shot after shot.
“I told the team we had to get layups and offensive rebounds because if we were held to one shot we wouldn’t win,” Jones said.
The Wildcats kept the Eagles off the offensive glass and held them to just one shot nearly every time down the floor. Ellison shot just 29 percent and rarely got the ball inside thanks to a harassing defensive effort by Temple.
The Wildcats played some of their best basketball on the other end of the floor as well, able to get easy layups off simple cuts toward the basket. Junior guard Seastrunk was the toughest for the Eagles to contain, scoring back-to-back layups in a key first-half stretch.
“I think collectively, defensively and offensively, that’s probably the best we’ve played,” Thomas said.
Temple’s inability to keep Ellison off the offensive glass in the second half proved to be a big part of the Wildcats’ undoing.
The Eagles had eight offensive rebounds in the third quarter alone and 14 for the game. After being held to a single basket in the first half, forward Chris Harpe scored 10 points in the second half, helping Ellison cut a nine-point halftime deficit to two heading into the fourth.
With Temple’s big men in foul trouble, Ellison simply wanted to pound the ball to the interior.
“That was a big part of the gameplan because we couldn’t hit anything outside,” Jones said.
Thomas reminded his team throughout the second half that Ellison would make a run, and his challenge to the Wildcats was to not back down.
Ellison grabbed the lead twice in the fourth, capitalizing on Temple turnovers, but never could fully take control until it simply wore the Wildcats out in overtime.
“If you’re going to play a team like that, who’s favored in the district, you’ve got to know that they’re going to throw some haymakers,” Thomas said. “Those haymakers are offensive rebounds, sometimes 3-pointers, sometimes they’re dunks. You’ve just got to be able to absorb that and come back with your own. I thought that the kids responded well to them.”
rschneider@temple-telegram.com
