After Head Coach Steve Lowe said the Vikings "got punched in the face a bit" in the first half. The Vikings heard the message loud and clear, and delivered some punches of their own in the second half.
A career night from Kayla Jones helped send the Vikings to 2-0 in conference play with a 73-62 road win at Temple on Wednesday, Jan. 15. 
Jones paced the offense early and often in this one, consistently beating double teams, and getting high percentage looks from the basket. Despite getting off to a slow start, the Vikings kept things close throughout. Jones started the scoring, and Madison Carter tied things up at seven early with a big three. Both teams traded leads for the remainder of the quarter, with the Vikings in the 14-11 deficit.
Temple scored the first basket of the second quarter, with the Vikings rallying to tie it at 16; Jones scoring the first five of the quarter.
Temple went on a 10-2 scoring run to take their largest lead of the game at eight points. The Vikings cut into the lead, but Temple built the Viking deficit back up to nine points. The defense for Grayson came up with a big steal with seven seconds left; Jones tipped it to Susan Fahnbulleh who made a cross court pass to Gracie Burckhartzmeyer for the layup, and the Vikings went into the locker room down 34-27.
Temple scored the first basket of the second half to match the largest deficit for Grayson, as their offense was scoreless for the first couple minutes. Jones broke the drought with a put back layup, Madison Martin drove for a layup, and the Vikings very quickly pulled within five. After a Temple basket, Burckhartzmeyer connected on a deep three to pull Grayson within two. The Viking offense erupted from there. Ella Hamlin hit a baseline jumper, and Carter gave the Vikings their first lead since the first quarter with a big three to put Grayson up 41-40 with 5:00 to play in the third. Jones followed with a layup, Fahbulleh and Carter followed with big three's of their own and the Vikings would outscore the Leopards from Temple 29-8 in the third quarter, and the Vikings led 56-42 heading into the final quarter.
Temple scored the first five of the fourth quarter to pull within nine, but a basket from Burckhartzmeyer and Jones put the Vikings back up by double digits, and they held on for the big win.
"In the first half, we were being too passive, and Temple's aggressiveness got to us," Coach Lowe said. "In the third quarter, we relaxed a little bit and just played. It's amazing what happens when you get defensive stops, rebound, and keep people in front of you. I'm really proud of our kids."
Jones set career highs in points (29) and rebounds (16).
"I told her that today was the day to go be an MVP," he said. "We're in conference play, she's going to play more minutes, we need to go through her to get the offense going and do what we want to do."
Carter returned from an injury and scored 17 off the bench.
"It was huge getting her back," he said. "She's one of our best shooters, makes big shots and is a high IQ player."
Burckhartzmeyer chipped in 10, while Fhanbulleh had eight, and led the team with five assists. Lowe was complimentary of his whole team and the roles they played whether it be offensively or defensively, with some playing out of position based on matchups.
The Vikings will return home to take on Cisco on Saturday, Jan. 18. Tip-off is set for 2pm at Viking Gym.