The Temple College men's basketball closed out the 2025 portion of their 2025-2026 schedule on Wednesday afternoon as they hosted Coastal Bend College at Kirby Johnson Court.
Temple erased a nine-point deficit mid-way through the second half and led by eight points with four minutes to play. Coastal bolted back to force overtime, before the Leopards outscored the Cougars in the extra session 12-8 to defeat CBC, 94-90.
The game was extremely close in the first half, with neither team having led by more than four points.
TC (9-7) led at the halftime break, 43-42.
In the second half, the Cougars pulled out to a 63-54 advantage and were poised to pull away.
However, the Leopards put together a 17-7 stretch, capped by a steal and score by Byron Piper to put Temple up 71-70. TC continue to stretch the streak to 26-9 and led with four minutes to play, 80-72.
Coastal Bend (3-9) continued to press on, having converted a couple of turnovers into field goals and fouls into dead-ball points at the free-throw line.
Having trailed 82-78 with 49.6 seconds left in regulation, the Cougars pulled even in the waning moments to force overtime, tied 82-82.
Piper, Josh Telfort, Jaymes Brown-Peterson, and Ovie Agbigbe combined for the 12 overtime points, having accumulated a six-point advantage, 90-84, with 1:56 left in overtime.
Coastal chipped away at the margin, but Temple held off the Cougars' final charge for the four-point win.
Temple converted 30-of-36 free-throws (83.3%), which included 18-of-18 in the second half plus overtime, and hit five three-pointers.
Agbigbe led all scorers with 28 points, which included 5-of-5 from the free-throw line. Telfort added 18 points, having converted 10-of-11 at the charity stripe.
Coastal Bend shot 12-of-23 at the free-throw line and a trio of three-pointers.
Richard Safa led the Cougars with 23 points, 15 in the first half. Taj Petteway added 20 points, and Jarrius Jackson, Jr. chipped in 15 points.
The Leopards return to action on Jan. 7 as they host Ranger College to begin North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference action. The women's game will begin at 5 pm, followed by the men at 7 pm.