As the last gasps of January faded and February began, the Temple College athletic programs saw four of their teams in action this past week.
Men's and women's basketball resumed play after a seven-day break, while mid-week weather moved one softball series up a day and to a different, while a baseball doubleheader was cancelled, and another that was nearly played in Austin, but the field became playable for a beautiful Saturday afternoon series. The weekend ended with a beautiful Sunday doubleheader.
Here is the past week's action in Leopards' athletics:
Men' basketball drops matchup against MCC
The Temple College men's basketball program hosted McLennan Community College in a late Saturday afternoon matchup.
The Highlanders pushed the tempo on the Leopards throughout the contest and came away with an 82-59 victory over TC.
The Highlanders shot 12-of-17 from the free-throw line and connected on four three-point attempts.
Rontavious Blackshear led all scorers with 22 points, 19 in the second half. Evan Chatman and Frederick Rogers, III, each scored 21.
The Leopards converted 15-of-23 free throws and scored five three-pointers.
Camren Roper led TC with 13 points, and Jaymes Brown-Peterson scored ten points off the bench.
Temple College sits at 15-8 overall, and 4-3 in conference play. They are 2 ½ games behind MCC and a full game behind Weatherford College. They are ½ game ahead of Collin County Community College and Southwestern Christian College.
The week ahead…
The Leopards host Ranger College next Saturday at Kirby Johnson Court at 4 pm. On Jan. 8, TC defeated the Rangers on the road, 89-83.
Women's basketball suffers setback against MCC after a rough second quarter
The Temple College women's basketball hosted conference-leading McLennan Community College on Saturday afternoon.
Following a solid first quarter showing by the Leopards, the Highlassies held TC without a point for seven minutes and without a field goal for nearly 11 minutes. Temple could not recover as they fell to MCC, 66-52.
Temple jumped out to a six-point lead and took a 20-14 advantage into the second quarter.
McLennan used a 9-0 run during a 5:36 stretch to grab a 25-20 lead, and stretched the advantage to 13 points by halftime, 38-25.
TC outscored the Highlassies in the third quarter, 14-10 but continued to trail by nine points as they headed into the fourth quarter.
MCC led by as many as 16 points with 6:05 to play.
Jalayah Ingram led MCC with 21 points, 17 of which came in the first half. The Highlassies were 11-of-18 from free-throw line.
TC converted 16-of-23 from the free-throw stripe.
The Leopards had balanced scoring, with Jaylice Rosario and Imani McCray having netted ten points each. Regan Pavesi added nine points, and Aniyah Lewis and Mychal White chipped in eight points each.
Temple is 13-8 overall, and 3-4 in NTJCAC play, tied for fifth place for Cisco College.
The week ahead…
Temple will hit the halfway point of their NTJCAC schedule on Wednesday, as they travel to Cisco College for a 5pm matchup with the Wranglers.
On Saturday, they will host Ranger College in a 2pm game. The Leopards won in Ranger on Jan. 8, 80-65.
Baseball splits doubleheader against No. 1 Blinn College
After weather saturated the baseball field at the Danny Scott Complex to force a cancellation of a Friday doubleheader against Odessa College, the Temple College Leopards baseball squad faced off against No. 1 Blinn College at the Danny Scott Athletic Complex on Saturday afternoon in a rematch from last week.
The Leopards held the Buccaneers off the board in the opener, but Blinn put up runs in the nightcap as the teams split Saturday afternoon at the Danny Scott Athletic Complex.
TC took game one, 2-0, and Blinn won game two, 5-0. Both games were seven-inning affairs.
In the opener, Andrew Ermis' two-out double in the first inning set up Lance Cantrell's RBI single. Hunter Baros scored on a Ryder Rutledge single and error by Matt Quintanar to account for the Leopards two runs.
Eric Tenery and Patrick Collopy combined for a four-hit shutout. Tenery allowed three hits, walked two, and struck out two over four innings for the win. Collopy tossed three innings of one-hit ball, having struck out four for the save.
In the second game, a bases-loaded walk drawn by Bennett Fryman force home Benji Barrera off TC starting pitcher Kade Davis gave the Buccaneers the lead.
Blinn added three more runs in the fourth and one in the seventh, as Hayden Morris and Hunter Bond combined to two-hit the Leopards. The pair combined to strike out 12 batters and walked three.
Barerra and Caden Ferraro each had two hits for the Buccaneers.
Brayden Simmons and Kade Millar had the TC hits.
Temple College sits at 1-3 as they approach a three-game week.
The week ahead…
Temple will host Wharton County Community College on Wednesday at 2 pm. On Saturday, the Leopards will travel to Lufkin to take on Angelina College in a doubleheader with 1 pm and 3:30pm start times. It will be the first two games of a six-game road trip for the Leopards.
Softball picks up four wins to start 2025 campaign
The Temple College softball team started the season in an odd way.
First, their season-opening doubleheader with Kilgore College was moved up to Tuesday afternoon.
With Monday wet weather, Kilgore's field was unplayable. So, on Tuesday, the scene shifted to Spring Hill High School in Longview.
From that point forward in the week, the Leopards took control of things
Temple defeated the Rangers 7-1 and 15-6 in five innings to start their season 2-0.
The Leopards hosted the Clarendon College Bulldogs in a Sunday matinee doubleheader at the Danny Scott Athletic Complex.
TC scored in each offensive inning and swept the Bulldogs in a pair of five-inning wins, 13-0 and 19-2.
The Leopards week concluded with four wins, having outscored the opposition 54-9, has scored in 13 straight innings, collected 64 hits, and 35 extra-base hits.
Marleigh Manns has nine hits over the first four games, with Lily Garcia having collected eight hits, and Angie DeLeon contributed seven hits during the week. Garcia had ten runs batted in, Manns added in two homers and seven runs batted in, and DeLeon crossed the plate six times.
Haley Crawford and Hannah Calhoun each logged two wins in the circle, and the pitching staff has an era of 2.55 with 23 strikeouts and nine walks.
The week ahead…
The Leopards will have six games in a four-day stretch. On Tuesday, Temple travels to Brenham take on Blinn College in a 1pm and 3pm twin-bill. On Thursday, the Leopards will host Coastal Bend College in a doubleheader with 1pm and 3pm games. On Friday, the Leopards will travel to Beeville to take Coastal Bend at 1pm and 3pm.