Weatherford got 26 points from Egidija Busaite as it beat the Temple women 78-68, sending the Lady Leopards into a fourth-place tie in the Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference.
But later on the TC men scored an important victory, with Jordan Brown producing 24 points and 10 rebounds as the Leopards recovered from an early 20-6 deficit to beat the Coyotes 89-83 and get to the .500 mark in the NTJCAC for a share of fourth place.
MEN
Coach Kirby Johnson and his Leopards knew they’d have four of their next five games at home after Wednesday, but they also knew they had to beat Weatherford (9-14, 2-6) to be able to take full advantage of the favorable schedule.
It wasn’t nearly as easy as TC’s 125-85 home rout of the Coyotes four weeks ago, but the Leopards (14-10, 4-4) certainly will take it.
“This was a big win for us,” said Johnson, whose squad will host second-place Hill (16-8, 6-2) at 4 p.m. Saturday. “Now the schedule starts to favor us with four of five at home. We’ve talked about going 7-0 in the second half.”
TC trailed 9-2 and 20-6 early, but sophomore wing J.B. Conley (three points, seven rebounds in 15 minutes) - who hadn’t played since November because of a lower-leg stress fracture - came in and gave the Leopards a spark as they seized a 39-38 lead by halftime.
Temple used its press defense and the play of Brown, Russ Permenter (17 points, 10 rebounds), Chris Ellis (15 points) and Allyn Cooks (13 points, 10 assists) to stretch its lead, and Marlon Miller (Belton) scored all nine of his points in the final 10 minutes.
“Jordan played really well and got on the boards,” Johnson said. “He played with a lot of energy tonight.”
On Saturday afternoon TC will seek to avenge its 86-74 road loss to a stout Hill squad.
Said Johnson: “We’ll need to play well early and limit them on the boards, because their big guys are good.”
WOMEN
Temple’s struggles on the road continued Wednesday.
“It was another miserable night on the road,” TC coach Kim Sebek said. “We didn’t take care of the ball, we didn’t shoot free throws well and it just wasn’t an overall good performance.”
The Lady Leopards (12-10, 5-4) were led by Julisa Mitchell with 19 points and Mareta Bailey with 16, but both got into first-half foul trouble, which allowed the Lady Coyotes to break open a close game before the half.
Temple trailed by as many as 18 points in the second half and cut it close twice before finally settling in at the 10-point deficit.
“We got off to a good start but got into foul trouble,” Sebek said. “We weren’t able to get much production from the bench.”
The Lady Leopards dropped into a three-way tie for fourth with Grayson County and Southwestern Christian.
The bright spot for the Lady Leopards is that they have their next two games at home, where they have not lost a conference game this year, beginning with Hill at 2 p.m. Saturday.
