The Temple College Leopards women's basketball team started North Texas Junior College Athletic Conference on Wednesday with a tough road test at Ranger College.

Temple turned up the defense late in the first quarter, engineered a comeback from 11 points down to take the lead, and used a 34-point performance by Jaylice Rosario to defeat Ranger, 80-65.

The Rangers started quick, as Aisha Martin scored 11 of the team's first 15 points and helped grab a 15-4 lead.

Rosario, Reagan Pavesi, Mychie White, and Biva Byrd combined on a 15-2 run to finish the quarter and lead the Rangers, 19-17.

The Leopards' suffocating defense forced Ranger into multiple low percentage bad shots. Temple was afforded several second and third-chance opportunities in their offensive paint, and the chances were turned into points on the board, as TC led at halftime, 42-28.

Rosario, who was named NTJCAC women's basketball player of the week on Wednesday, continued to dominate in the paint, having collected points and offensive rebounds to continue the second half.

The Rangers were only able to cut the margin to ten points before the Leopards pushed the advantage back to 15 in the third period.

Temple led by as many as 21 points late before an 8-0 run by Ranger brought the margin back into the teens.

The Leopards are now 11-4 overall, and 1-0 in NTJCAC play, while Ranger dropped to 3-10 overall, and 0-1 in conference play.

Temple College will host Collin County Community College on Saturday afternoon at 2 pm at Kirby Johnson Court.