PLANO - The Temple College basketball teams went into Wednesday night’s games at Collin County knowing how crucial winning was.

For the men, it meant securing at least a share of second place in the Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference standings at the midway point. For the women, it was all about position because both teams had two losses and the winner would be alone in third place.

The No. 16-ranked TC men did their job, securing a 91-88 comeback win after the women struggled in the second half to fall 89-73 at Cougar Gym.

TC men 91, Collin County 88

Temple’s J.B. Conley felt right at home. With friends and family on hand to cheer him on, Conley, who hails from Richardson, scored a game-high 26 points - including five key points in the final two minutes - to lead the Leopards to a wild comeback win over Collin.

“We knew we were going to win this game,” Conley said. “We wanted it more. We knew we were the better team. I think they knew we were the better team. Having my friends and family here motivated me a little bit more.”

The crowd made plenty of noise in the final minutes as TC rallied from an eight-point deficit win the battle.

Temple (20-2 overall, 5-2 NTJCAC) led by a point at halftime, but a few turnovers and Collin’s hot 3-point shooting helped the Cougars (15-7, 3-3) take the lead early in the half and maintain it until there was 1:39 left.

That’s when TC forced a turnover on an inbound pass and Conley hit a short jumper to put TC up 85-84.

But the fun was just beginning.

TC forced a second turnover on an inbound pass but failed to convert a basket as Collin’s Craig Stanley got a steal and tried to go end to end. But as he tried to go up for a layup he was called for charging with 1:20 to go.

TC’s Chris Ellis missed a shot but the Leopards forced a five-second violation and then expanded the lead. LaDon Huckaby missed a 3-pointer, but Conley grabbed the rebound and made an easy putback for an 87-84 lead with 45 seconds to play.

TC got the ball right back on a turnover and Collin fouled Thomas Anguiano, who made both free throws for a five-point lead with 36 seconds left. Collin answered with two free throws and then fouled Conley, who made one of two.

Stanley hit a short shot to cut it back to two points with 9.03 seconds left.

Ervin Johnson was fouled and made one of two free throws for the final margin, but Collin’s Kendrell Thompson got off a final 3 try with 2 seconds left. Conley got a hand in his face to force the miss, and Ellis got the rebound and ran out the clock.

“What a finish,” TC coach Kirby Johnson said. “What a gutty performance by my guys. There were a couple times things didn’t look good. The guys fought back and made shots. Collin played good tonight. We grew up some tonight and I was really pleased.

“That’s the game that can propel you into the second round. If we are going to win the conference, we needed to win this one and the one next Wednesday against (first-place) Weatherford.”

Collin County 89, TC women 73

Maybe if Shondria Combs’ desperation shot at halftime had gone in instead of bouncing out of the rim, it might have been a different story. Maybe if TC hadn’t had had to go into halftime at all it might have been a different story.

But the shot did bounce out, and TC went into halftime tied at 31 and never could get anything going in the second half en route to losing to Collin.

“We came out flat the second half,” TC coach Kim Sebek said. “Collin was the better team and we had no answer for their matchup zone.”

And the Lady Leopards (11-10, 5-3) had little answer for Collin’s Amber Murray and Rachel Schlosser, who hit six 3s and scored a combined 44 points.

Still, TC looked to be the better team before halftime. Despite falling behind by nine points, the Lady Leopards rallied back and took a 27-26 lead with 2:40 to play and built it to five with a minute to go.

But TC seemed to fall apart momentarily on defense as shots by Nikki Brown and Murray tied the game with less than 4 seconds to play. Combs got off a halfcourt buzzer-beater but it rimmed out, leaving Collin (13-8, 5-2) with the momentum.

“We fought back and it was tied,” Sebek said. “We kept battling and played hard to fight back for the tie at halftime. But we just didn’t play well the second half and had a difficult time offensively.”

Collin’s offense had no problems in the second half.

The Cougars opened the half with a 6-0 run before TC’s Marissa Rauss finally got the Lady Leopards on the board with a putback. But then the Cougars went on a 16-0 run, highlighted by three 3s by Schlosser and Murray, putting TC down 20 with 13 minutes to play.

“We just didn’t have anything go right for us,” Sebek added. “Collin had a lot to do with that.”

To make matters worse, TC tried to force shots to try to get back in the game and that often resulted in turnovers and easy points for Collin.

“We took too many quick shots,” Sebek said. “We didn’t get the open looks. Just a tough game on the road.”

Temple High School graduate Combs and Rauss scored 18 points each. TC had two other players score in double figures.

Temple is off Saturday and will host second-place Weatherford at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday.

mhood@temple-telegram.com