The previously unbeaten TC men fell to 15-1 with a 103-88 loss and the Lady Leopards fell to 6-8 with a 70-62 loss in the teams’ Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference basketball openers Wednesday night at Betty Jo Crumm Graber Athletic Complex.
Weatherford 103, TC men 88
The Leopards picked a bad time to have a bad game.
Weatherford’s Edvinas Ruzgas scored a game-high 30 points and the Coyotes dominated the Leopards in their first loss.
“We didn’t play as well as we’ve been playing,” TC coach Kirby Johnson said. “Tonight we looked like a team of eight freshmen. We didn’t do what we wanted to do schemewise and looked flustered at times.”
On the other end of that, Weatherford looked like an experienced team. Along with sophomore Ruzgas, fellow sophomores Roderick Flemings and Courtney Hill both scored in double figures.
After the first few minutes of the game during which Temple was the better team rebounding and shooting, it quickly turned and got out of control as Weatherford scored often to take a 55-38 lead into the half.
TC came out strong in the second half as its fast-paced offense got the ball to J.B. Conley underneath for six consecutive points, followed by a 3-pointer by Chris Ellis and another transition basket to cut the lead to 60-53 still early in the half.
But there the rally stalled, and TC never closed the gap.
“Their separation pretty much stayed the same margin,” Johnson said. “We never did make a good run. But the kids played hard and did a good job coming back.”
It looked like it was all over after an authoritative block by Weatherford’s Jordan Michelson set up an easy basket for De’Angelo Robinson followed by a steal and a 3 by John Lane to give the Coyotes a 17-point lead with nine minutes to go, but more important it got the crowd into the game and took some emotion out of TC.
But Weatherford almost got too content and suddenly found TC making a charge. A technical foul after a foul allowed TC to score seven straight points in under five seconds to cut the lead to 14 with 7:30 to go, then the Leopards’ press defense got some turnovers and TC trailed by only 10 with more than 4 minutes to play.
But that’s when Hill took over. Hill, who hardly had touched the ball prior to this point, was on fire. He hit three consecutive deep 3s, all in transition, followed by a jumper and two free throws to score 15 points - 13 in the final 4 minutes.
“He’s averaging about eight points a game and he hits three NBA 3s,” Johnson said. “You have to give him credit for that.”
LaDon Huckaby led TC with 17 points, Ellis and Wes Dipprey added 12 each and C.J. Richards had 11.
The Leopards will look to rebound when they host Hill at 4 p.m. Saturday at TC Gym.
“I told the guys the one good thing is now we don’t have to worry about being undefeated,” Johnson said. “We don’t half to talk about it anymore and we don’t have to hear anyone say it. All this loss does is means we won’t be undefeated, but we can still win conference and we can still accomplish our goals.”
Weatherford 70, TC women 62
It was hard enough for the Lady Leopards to rally back from one double-digit deficit. To do it a second time was next to impossible.
The Weatherford Lady Coyotes held off two frantic Temple runs and held on to win the conference opener.
“It’s disappointing in the fact we lost the game,” TC coach Kim Sebek said. “It was a big test for us on the road against one of the top teams in conference. And for us to come out and stay within eight points on the road and not playing up to our potential gives me a lot of hope for our upcoming games.”
And it could have been closer had TC been able to capitalize on its two runs.
The first rally began with Temple trailing 29-13 with just more than 7 minutes left in the opening half.
At that point TC’s Brittany Bryant nailed a 3 to cut the lead to 13, and the teams exchanged baskets until the Lady Leopards got a mini-run to close out the half.
It began free throws from Marissa Rauss, then a second 3 by Bryant to cut the lead to 10 with just under three minutes to go.
TC got a stop, a basket by Rauss, a steal and basket by Shondria Combs and then drew a foul that sent Mareta Bailey to the free-throw line to cut it to 34-31 at halftime.
But the Lady Leopards failed to take advantage of that momentum in the second half, and Weatherford went on a 9-0 run to take the lead back into double figures.
“Two things I thought were key were we only shot 60 percent from the free-throw line and that 9-0 run,” Sebek said. “They came out firing buckets and scoring on their end and we couldn’t counter on ours. That hurt us because we had fought so hard to get back in it in the first half.”
And with 8:36 to go, TC again found itself down by 16 and in a game that had completely changed.
In the first half, Temple was able to take advantage of Weatherford’s press and got several easy baskets, including 15 first-half points from Rauss, who had to contend with the size and physical play of Afeisha Noel and Julita Bungaiate, who both stood three inches taller than the 6-foot Rauss.
“Most of her points came in transition,” Sebek said. “Weatherford came out and pressed us a lot and that’s when we were able to get the ball to her underneath with some easy transition baskets.”
In the second half, Rauss was outmatched and limited to just two points to end with 17, while Weatherford’s mix of defenses kept Sebek looking for the right combination of players.
It finally began to take shape shortly after the 16-point deficit. A series of steals and turnovers got the Lady Leopards some more easy points and had cut the lead to nine with just over six minutes to play. Combs cut it to 57-51 with 5:44 to go with she drained a 3 at the top of the key on a beautiful dish from Alex Pinney.
Temple hung with the Lady Coyotes for the next few minutes and with just under two to play Andrea Johnson hit an open 3 to cut the lead to 66-62.
But the Lady Leopards couldn’t close the gap further as Combs fouled out, and consecutive missed shots sealed Weatherford’s win.
“You’re looking at a four-point deficit and suddenly we can’t buy a basket,” Sebek said. “We just suddenly started struggling on the offensive end.
“But now we just have to regroup and get ready for Hill."
mhood@temple-telegram.com
