CISCO - Protect the home court and sneak away with a few wins on the road. That’s the Temple College Lady Leopards’ plan for qualifying for the NJCAA Region V basketball tournament.

With a perfect home record intact, the Lady Leopards got one of their key road victories Saturday when they beat the Cisco Lady Wranglers 80-67.

“It was a tough road win in a hostile environment,” Temple coach Kim Sebek said. “It was definitely a battle until the final buzzer.”

Temple (9-8 overall, 3-1 in Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference) was led by Mareta Bailey with 19 points and 14 rebounds. Brittany Bryant, Alex Pinney and Marisa Rauss all scored in double figures for the Lady Leopards.

“We developed a nice lead in the first half,” Sebek added. “Then Cisco developed a nice run to cut the lead to two at halftime. We kept our composure and were able to pull away late.”

Temple led 39-37 at halftime, and Cisco tied the game several times but never took the lead before Temple started to pull away late.

Sebek added that Cisco (7-11, 1-3) got into foul trouble early in the second half, and TC was able to score a lot at the free-throw line to help pull away.

The Lady Leopards will play McLennan at 5:30 p.m. Monday in Waco. According to McLennan’s website, Monday is family night and admission to the game is free.