The Temple College men's basketball team, the North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference third-seed, took on the South Plains College Texas on Thursday afternoon at the Region V Men's Basketball Postseason Tournament at the Odessa Sports Center.
Temple jumped out to a 9-0 lead in the first 3:23 of the game. Roy Gardner and Jaymes Brown-Peterson hit three-pointers, Harry Bates hit a field goal, and Josh Telfort converted a free-throw.
Following Jason Ward's three-pointer and Gardner's free throw to make the score 13-5, the Texans used a 13-5 run of their own to tie the game at 18-18 with 9:29 left in the first half.
South Plains took their first lead of the game on a jumper by Antallah Sandlin'el to give the Texans a 20-18 lead with 9:13 to go in the opening half.
The Texans stretched their lead to seven before they took a 38-33 lead into the locker room.
Temple tried with all they could do to keep SPC from running away with the game, as they closed to within four points of the Texans with 18:33 left in regulation.
SPC pulled the lead back out to nine points with 16:52 to go before Temple used an 8-3 run to pull back to within four.
The Texans pulled out to an 11-point lead with 7:33 to play before Temple made a push and got within five points, 81-76, with 2:56 to go.
SPC finished the game on a 12-4 run to win the game and advance to the Region V semifinal against Midland College, who defeated MCC, 74-71.
The Leopards shot 27-of-60 (45%) from the field, 8-of-19 (42.1%) from behind the three-point line, and 18-of-27 (66.7%) from the free-throw line.
Telfort scored 21 points, Bates added 15, and Ovie Agbigbe chipped in 11 off the bench.
South Plains shot 32-of-63 (50.8%) from the field, 10-of-24 (41.7%) from the three-point arc, and 19-of-22 (86.4%) at the free-throw line.
Six South Plains players scored in double-digits, led by Micah Bell's 22 points and Jaylen Colon's 17.
The Leopards finished their season 18-13 overall. The game concluded the junior college careers of Josh Telfort, Jason Ward, Jonty Kells, Ovie Agbigbe, Jaymes Brown-Peterson, Joel Brown, Joel Brown, Roy Gardner, and Harry Bates.