The Temple College women's basketball team faced their first major road test of the North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference season Saturday afternoon in Plano as they took on No. 19 Collin County Community College.
Temple's ten-point lead in the third quarter was erased by the Cougars' offensive attack and consistent conversions at the free-throw line to the charity stripe, as Collin came from behind to defeat TC, 59-50.
After Chyna Nixon's field goal five seconds into the game, Collin mounted a 12-4 run, with Gabby Morales scoring five of the points,
The Leopards answered with a 9-5 first period closing, 4:33 stretch to cut the Cougars lead to four, 17-13.
Temple (11-5 overall, 1-1 NTJCAC) locked the Cougars up on the defensive side, having forced multiple turnovers and low-percentage shots. Ranyiah Hunt, Korina Garcia, and Antronea Jackson combined to score 15 points in a 15-2 run to help the Leopards take a 30-21 lead into the halftime break.
Nixon and Gabby Edo hit buckets to push the Leopards lead to ten points with 5:42 remaining in the third quarter.
Collin (12-3 overall, 2-0 NTJCAC) closed the period on a 9-5 run Morales, Olivia Grgicevich-Lassey, and Mufaro Mapengo posted points to pull the Cougars to within six points heading into the fourth quarter, 41-35.
Collin took the lead with seven minutes left in regulation and did not relinquish the advantage.
The Cougars scored just five field goals in the fourth quarter. Benefitting from a 13-4 foul call differential in the final 9:05, Collin converted 14-of-18 free-throws awarded and pulled away to the nine-point victory.
Temple converted 8-of-12 at the free-throw line but saw the charity stripe twice in the second half, going 1-for-4.
Garcia led the Leopards with 18 points, Hunt added eight points, and Jackson chipped in seven points.
Collin went 17-of-23 at the free-throw line in the final 20 minutes and a total of 21-of 27 at the charity stripe.
Morales had 16 points to lead Collin. Taliah Martin scored 14 points and Sarah Basaran added 11 points.
Temple will travel to Denison on Wednesday to take on Grayson College.