The Temple College men's basketball team went into the Wednesday night's game against Weatherford College at the Betty Jo Graber Center looking to build on the momentum from the win at home against Hill College.

The game against the Coyotes had late challenges, as Temple built a 20-point lead that was sliced down to four points. The Leopards held on for an 84-73 win.

Temple (12-9 overall, 3-2 NTJCAC) muscled their way to the lead after trailed or tied for the first six minutes. Roy Gardner hit back-to-back buckets in a 34-second span to give the Leopards their first lead, 12-11 with 13:56 left in the opening half.

The Leopards used Gardner's points to start a 10-2 run as Temple built a nine-point lead with 10:09 left in the half.

Weatherford (10-11 overall, 2-3 NTJCAC) went on an 8-0 run to draw the Coyotes to within a point, 24-23, with 7:58 to play in the opening 20 minutes.

Temple methodically worked on a 19-10 stretch to finish the first half, as Byron Piper and Josh Telfort were instrumental in the run. Piper scored 12 straight points for the Leopards and Telfort added six, as Temple led at halftime, 43-33.

The Leopards built up a game-high 20-point lead when Telfort's two free-throws put Temple up 57-37 with 17:27 to play.

Weatherford, using a combination of timely shooting and tenacious defense, used a prolonged run of 32-16 during a timeframe of 14:49 to climb to within four points of the Leopards, 73-69, with 1:51 to play.

Jaymes Brown-Peterson's tip in as the shot clock expired switched the momentum of the outcome, as it helped TC mount a 10-4 finish to sew up the win for the Leopards.

Temple drilled nine three-pointers and converted 13-of-17 free-throws.

Telfort led a balanced scoring attack for Temple, with 16 points. Brown-Peterson added 15 points, and Piper added 14.

The Leopards will host Southwestern Christian on Saturday at 4 pm.