In basketball, needing to double your score to catch up is no big deal if the game is still early. But if you go into halftime still needing to double your score just to catch up, you might have a problem.

On Saturday afternoon, the Grayson County College Lady Vikings had a problem.

The Temple College Lady Leopards were impressive in building a 46-22 halftime lead and rolled to an 89-59 victory in a Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference tilt at TC Gym.

“The bottom line was we came out and played well today,” TC coach Kim Sebek said. “I thought overall this was one of our best games of the season.”

And it was the second game in a row which the Lady Leopards (11-9 overall, 5-2 NTJCAC) established the outcome early. On Wednesday, Temple built a 20-point halftime lead en route to a 98-64 win over Southwestern Christian College.

But Grayson (11-8, 3-3) at least made a game of it for the first five minutes. Caribbean Luellen found room inside to score her team’s first eight points and a tight Grayson defense kept Temple in check early.

“They played very, very aggressive defense,” Sebek said “It took us a while to understand what they were doing.”

But after a couple of fouls, Grayson had to back off on defense and TC found some easy shots to begin to pull away.

With 13 minutes to go and the Lady Leopards leading 15-12, a 14-4 run during the next four minutes - aided by numerous Grayson turnovers - helped TC blow the game open.

Grayson committed 28 turnovers in the game, almost all of them in the first half.

“We mixed (our defenses) up early just to throw them off some because they move very well,” Sebek said. “We forced a few turnovers and some were unforced on their part.”

No matter what caused the turnovers, the Lady Leopards had no trouble capitalizing. They finished the half on a second big run - this time outscoring Grayson 15-2.

The big lead allowed Sebek to once again allow all of her players to get some time.

Five TC players scored in double figures, led by the 18 points of post Marisa Rauss. Rauss was able to control the inside game after Grayson post Ashley Collier - the tallest player for either team - picked up her fourth foul midway through the first half and ended up a spectator most of the game.

But as important as it was for Sebek to get all of her players in, it was equally important to use Alex Pinney at point guard. Pinney, the team’s top scorer and a shooting guard, was needed at the point after reserve guard Kristel Munson suffered an injury in practice on Friday.

That left Sebek with two options: Use starting point Shondria Combs, who had 15 points, the entire game or test Pinney’s point ability.

“We don’t know (Munson’s) status,” Sebek said. “I doubt she’ll be able to play on Wednesday (at Collin County). We went on a little scoring drought with Alex in there today but we were trying to do too much and trying to get the crowd into it. That created some turnovers. But we’ll practice her more there.”

Fortunately for the Lady Leopards, the scoring drought never hurt them as Grayson was too far gone to make a serious run. But it did leave Sebek with something to worry about on a day when everything else seemed to go right.

“We missed some (easy shots),” she said. “We will have to put them in down the road. It wasn’t critical today, but we have to be able to finish those shots.”

And in the end, all that really mattered for Temple was remaining undefeated in conference play at home - especially against the Lady Vikings, who look to fight for the conference’s fourth and final spot in the NJCAA Region V Tournament.

“I think the girls are understanding the importance of protecting their home court,” Sebek said. “We post the standings in the locker room, so they are aware of what’s taken place in conference. We knew they had two losses, too, and we had to step up.

“The girls did a great job today. And there was a lot of things that impressed me. If we can build on this and continue to get better, we will make a good run."

mhood@temple-telegram.com