The Temple College men's basketball team faced its first road of the young North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference season on Saturday in Plano, as the Leopards took on Collin County Community College.

Temple nearly overcame a 19-point deficit in a furious finish that Leopards ran out time during to fall to Collin, 83-76.

Jaymes Brown-Peterson hit two free-throws and the first field goal at the 17:30 mark of the first half to cut the Leopards margin to two points, 6-4.

The Cougars' inside game earned them 19-4 run within the opening ten minutes of the contest to take a 25-8 lead.

Temple (10-8 overall, 1-1 NTJCAC) stayed with 12 to 18 points of the Cougars before a 14-3 Leopards run cut Collin's lead to seven. The Leopards trailed at the half, 51-37.

Brown-Peterson and Ovie Agbigbe on a 9-0 run over the second half's opening 2:47 to bring Temple to within five points, 51-46.

Collin (14-3 overall, 2-0 NTJCAC) stretched their advantage back to 12 points before a 9-1 Temple run brought the Leopards back to within six points, 71-65, with 6:52 to play.

The Leopards crept to within four points with 2:56 to go on Agbigbe's three-pointer, and within three points on Josh Telfort's field goal with 42.6 seconds to play. However, Jayden Ramnanan's field goal and two free-throws gave Collin's its seven-point winning margin.

Temple went 8-of-12 from the free-throw line.

Brown-Peterson led the Leopards with 23 points, 15 in the second half. Agbigbe logged 13 points, and Bates added 12 points.

Collin went 30-of-44 from the free-throw line having the benefit from a 26-11 foul differential for the game.

Kevin Paul scored 21 points, and David Chong added 19 points.

Temple will travel to Denison to take on Grayson College on Wednesday.