However, Temple College’s men’s basketball team reversed that philosophy in its regular-season finale against Collin County on Wednesday night at TC Gym.

The Leopards got off to such a strong start - leading the Cougars by 21 points in the first half, by 24 with 11:54 left and by 16 with less than 4 minutes remaining - that their sloppy finish wasn’t enough to ruin it.

Wes Dipprey had 16 points and 10 rebounds as Temple held on to beat Collin 80-75 and clinch no worse than its conference’s No. 2 seed for next week’s NJCAA Region V Tournament in Belton.

And as a result, TC finished with a regular-season record of 27-3, the second-best mark in Kirby Johnson’s 21 seasons as the Leopards’ coach. Only Temple’s 31-1 squad from 2004-05 was better for the regular season.

“Really, I’m not upset with a five-point win,” said Johnson, who was less than pleased as his Leopards struggled to put the Cougars away in the final minutes. “When we were up 20 points, I told the guys, ‘They have 3-point shooters and they can come back.’

“To go 27-3, that’s pretty good,” he added. “If you would’ve told me before the season that we’d be 27-3, we’d take it.”

Said TC freshman forward J.B. Conley, who had 11 points: “The goal we set for ourselves before the season was 30-0, but we just won the second-most games since Coach has been here, so we’re happy about that.”

Temple, which entered the night trailing first-place Weatherford by a half-game, finished 11-3 in the Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference. Weatherford beat third-place McLennan 93-79 to maintain its lead and clinch at least a share of the NTJCAC championship.

TC would capture a share of its third league title in four years if the Coyotes lose at Grayson County (13-15, 6-7) on Saturday, but Weatherford owns the tiebreaker advantage over Temple and will be the NTJCAC’s No. 1 seed for the Region V Tournament, which begins next Thursday at Mary Hardin-Baylor’s Mayborn Campus Center.

TC will play Howard (23-7) - the third-place team from the Western Junior College Athletic Conference - in the first round of the eight-team tournament. The Hawks beat the top-seeded Leopards 81-72 in the opening round last season at UMHB.

Collin County (20-9, 8-5) needs only to beat lowly Southwestern Christian to clinch the NTJCAC’s No. 3 seed, though that likely would give the Cougars a first-round date with Midland, winner of two of the last three NJCAA Division I national titles.

The other first-round regional matchups are Weatherford (23-5) against South Plains (22-5) and likely McLennan (21-8) facing WJCAC champion Odessa (26-3).

Johnson said that with a week off to prepare for Howard, the Leopards have plenty to work on.

“We can watch the first half (of the win over Collin) and say, ‘This is really good defense.’ Then we can watch the second half and say, ‘You can’t do this in the regional tournament and make these mistakes and still win,’” he said. “It’s always a learning process whether it’s early in the year or late in the year.”

Temple dominated Collin early, using two baskets by Dipprey, four points by Chris Ellis (14 points) and a 3-pointer by LaDon Huckaby to seize an 11-0 lead 4:18 into the game as the Cougars’ offense couldn’t do anything right.

The advantage grew to 24-7 on DaVon Morrison’s 3 at the 10:19 mark, and Conley had a two-handed dunk off a steal by C.J. Richards and added a three-point play before Richards nailed a 3 to give TC a 36-15 lead with 3:45 left.

The Leopards carried a 41-22 lead into the second half, and their advantage grew to 56-32 on Huckaby’s runner with 11:54 remaining.

Collin finally solidified its grind-it-out offense and chipped away at Temple’s lead, but Conley nailed a 3 and the Leopards were up by 16 at 77-61 with 3:46 left.

What followed for TC was a series of turnovers and missed shots and free throws, and the Cougars made it 77-69 with 1:37 left on a 15-footer by Kendrell Thompson (13 points). Collin answered three Richards free throws with a pair of baskets and two foul shots to pull as close as five points, but the Cougars - doomed by their horrific start - simply ran out of time.

Thomas Anguiano dished out 13 assists for Temple, Huckaby had 11 points, eight assists and five steals, and Richards scored 10 points.

Jonathan Dupre led Collin with 16 points, Gilberto Clavell had 12, E.J. Kusnyer added 11 and Craig Stanley chipped in with 10.

Said Johnson of Temple’s outlook as it enters its ninth consecutive Region V Tournament: “We can learn from the last 3 minutes of this game. For us, it’s good to go in on a positive note.”

gwille@temple-telegram.com