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Brittany Bryant hit four first-half 3-pointers to help the Temple College Lady Leopards build a big first-half lead en route to a 79-69 win over Collin County Community College on Wednesday at TC Gym.
The win secured third place for the Lady Leopards in the final Northern Texas Junior College Athletic Conference standings and left Collin’s playoff life in jeopardy.
“I was proud of these girls tonight,” Temple coach Kim Sebek said. “Coming off a tough loss at Grayson, we knew this would be a tough test for us and the girls never lost focus.”
Saturday’s loss to Grayson meant Temple (17-12, 11-5 NTJCAC) had to beat Collin (17-12, 9-6) to secure a postseason berth, or hope either Collin or Grayson lost its final contest on Saturday.
The Lady Leopards weren’t about to put their fate in someone else’s hands.
After a sluggish start, Temple pounded away at Collin, converting almost every basket and grabbing almost every rebound to turn an early six-point deficit into a 18-point lead midway through the half, highlighted by 3-pointers by Bryant, Shondria Combs and Alex Pinney.
“I had no idea that we were going to be able to shoot the 3 effectively,” said Bryant, who had made only 10 3-pointers on the year. “I usually don’t shoot the 3. I take more of a jump shot, but it was open and I was hitting them, so I kept shooting them.”
Her final two 3s of the half practically put the game out of reach as she found an open shot on an inbound pass and added another about a minute later to give Temple a 20-point lead. The Lady Leopards took a 47-26 lead into halftime.
“To be honest Brittany is not our best 3-point shooter,” Sebek added. “Tonight she stepped up and elevated her game. She hit some big shots in the first half and kept us in the lead.”
But Sebek reminded her team that they were tied with Collin at halftime in the first meeting this year, before Collin won by 16.
“I told them at halftime that this game is far from being over,” she said. “Good, well-coached teams like Collin will make a run. We knew it would happen at some point.”
It happened with just under 10 minutes to play in the game.
TC’s Marisa Rauss had just gotten a steal, then got an easy basket on the other end off a nice pass from Andrea Johnson to put Temple up 68-41. Then Collin started to make a move.
Inside shots from Nikki Brown and 3-pointers from Rachel Schlosser and Porshe Revely got the lead cut to 68-52. Then after a basket by Bryan which stopped the mini run, Brown and Revely again got going to cut the lead to 70-62 with 2:50 to go.
The majority of the run happened with starting point guard Combs on the bench after picking up her third and fourth fouls. With reserve point guard Kristel Munson out for the year, Bryant had to move to the point.
“We really didn’t get down until Shondria got into foul trouble, and I had to run the point,” Bryant said. “I’m not really used to that. Coach has been making me practice running the (point) and I’m kind of getting used to it. It will take me a while to adjust but I’ll be fine.”
Sebek put Combs back in with four fouls, and she immediately made an impact. She drove the lane for a basket, grabbed a couple steals and hit four straight free throws to help TC push the lead back out to 13 with one minute to play. The Lady Leopards were able to maintain the lead the rest of the way.
“We were a little shaky with Shondria not in there. It hurt us,” Sebek added, “When she went out, their eyes lit up, and they thought they might have a chance. I finally decided I needed her back in to give us some ball handling. She came in and made that tough basket over three players, then hit those free throws before she finally fouled out.”
Combs finished the game with 18 points, 10 assists, nine rebounds and six steals. Bryant finished with 18 points and added nine rebounds. Rauss had 16 points and reserve guard Alex Pinney added 11.
Brown led the Lady Cougars with 21 points and Revely added 15.
Temple is off until the NJCAA Region V Tournament, which begins Friday, March 6 at Mary Hardin-Baylor’s Mayborn Campus Center.
Collin is tied for the final spot with Grayson, and needs a win and a loss by Grayson on Saturday to secure the final playoff spot.
“It’s a very exciting thing to be able to do what we did and know that we determined out own fate,” Sebek concluded. “We didn’t want anyone else to decide it for us, and the girls had an overall great team effort to get the job done tonight.”
mhood@temple-telegram.com