By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Circleville, Ohio---The Express women's and men's basketball programs, both ranked in the nation's top 10, will each look to capture a second straight district championship this weekend.
Region XII District I Women's Basketball Tournament, March 7-8, Ohio Christian University
The No. 5 Express women (25-2, 11-1 Ohio Community College Athletic Conference) are the defending champion in the Region XII District I tournament.
As this year's regular season OCCAC champions, their No. 1 seed has earned them a semifinal matchup against No. 4 seed Edison Community College (18-7, 7-5 OCCAC) on Friday at 1 p.m. The Chargers took down Sinclair Community College 85-47 (14-18, 6-6 OCCAC) in a quarterfinal matchup on Tuesday to earn their semifinal bid.
In two previous matchups this year, the Express defeated Edison twice. On Jan. 29, the Express won 80-57 at home before getting an 86-67 road win on Feb. 19. In those two matchups, Paige Wright (Northrop/Fort Wayne, Ind.) averaged 13 points, 9.5 rebounds and nine assists. Additionally, Ashley Tunstall (Huber Heights Wayne/Dayton, Ohio) averaged 16.5 points and 12.5 rebounds, while Kamilah Carter (Pioneer/Ann Arbor, Mich.) averaged 17.5 points and six assists.
On the other side, the Express will have to stop, or at least hope to contain, the offensive firepower of Edison's Brooke Richards. The sophomore averaged 23 points and 9.5 rebounds in the two matchups.
In addition to Richards, Tori Purk has averaged 15 points and 9.5 rebounds. The duo of her and Richards accounts for almost half of the team's points on average with 37.7 of the team's 78.3 per game average. In conference play, it's a higher percentage as the duo combines for 37.6 of the team's 75.8 points per game.
In OCCAC play, the Express are led by Carter (20.1 points per game), Tunstall (14.8 points per game) and Eboni Adams (Maple Heights/Cleveland, Ohio) at 12 points per game. In addition to them, Zhana Randolph (Rochester/Rochester Hills, Mich.) averages 9.5 points and Wright averages 8.6 points. Wright led the conference in assists with 6.6 per game, while Tunstall nearly led the conference in rebounding with 9.3 per game.
The Express will enter the tournament with a seven game winning streak and winners of 25 of their past 26 games.
The other semifinal matchup features another tough contest as No. 2 seed Cincinnati State Technical and Community College (18-10, 9-3 OCCAC) takes on No. 3 seed Columbus State Community College (20-6, 7-5 OCCAC) at 3 p.m. on Friday. Cincinnati State won both regular season games, but only by an average of 5.5 points.
The winner of each semifinal will meet in Saturday's 2 p.m. championship game. The winner will advance to the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II National Tournament in Overland Park, Kansas.
In last year's title game, the Express defeated Cincinnati State and advanced to the national tournament, where they lost their first game, but won the next three to capture seventh place overall.
The official bracket can be found here
Region XII District 11 Men's Basketball Tournament, March 7-8, Ohio Christian University
The No. 10 Express men's basketball team (24-5 overall, 11-1 OCCAC) just got done winning their first regular season OCCAC championship since the 2001-02 season, but face stiff competition in their effort to capture a second straight district championship - including the nation's No. 1 team.
The team who the Express shared this year's OCCAC championship with is the nation's No. 1 ranked team, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College. Each team handed each other its only league loss - the Express won 92-86 on Jan. 18 and Cincinnati State won 80-67 on Feb. 15.
While those two teams could possibly meet in the championship game, each team has to get by a tough semifinal matchup first as Cincinnati State (25-3, 11-1 OCCAC) will take on No. 4 seed Lakeland Community College (15-13 overall, 6-6 OCCAC) at 6 p.m. on Friday and the Express will take on No. 3 seed Sinclair Community College (21-8, 6-6 OCCAC) on Friday at 8 p.m.
Lakeland defeated Columbus State 86-76 in a quarterfinal matchup on Tuesday to earn their semifinal berth.
The Express defeated Sinclair twice during the regular season, but only by a narrow five point margin on the road March 1. In fact, that contest was the most recent game for each team. The Express defeated Sinclair 116-92 on Feb. 8 at home, while the Express saw a 20 point second half lead shrink to as little as three late in the March 1 game.
In those two games, Bikramjit Gill (Our Ascension of the Lord/Toronto, Ontario, Canada) has averaged 20 points, 12.5 rebounds, two blocks and 2.5 steals per game. Additionally, John Murry (North Central/Indianapolis, Ind.) has averaged 25 points and Shaakir Lindsey (Teaneck/Teaneck, N.J.) has averaged 17 points and 13 assists.
Sinclair has had a balanced attack in those two games. Five players scoredd in double figures in the first contest and six hit double figures in the second game.
In conference play, the Express have four players averaging double figures in points led by Murry's 20.5 per game. He is followed by Gill at 19 points, Andy Bachman (North Side/Fort Wayne, Ind.) at 13.3 and Lindsey at 11.3 per game. Gill is adding 13 rebounds and 3.2 blocks per game, while Lindsey is averaging eight assists per game.
The winner of each semifinal matchup will meet in Saturday's 5:30 p.m. championship game. The winner of that will advance to the NJCAA Division II National Tournament in Danville, Ill.
In last year's title game, the Express defeated Lakeland Community College. The Express went on to advance to the semifinals of the national tournament before finishing fourth in the nation.
The official bracket can be found here
Notes
You can follow live updates of each game by visiting our Twitter page (@owensexpress)...Other updates will be posted on our Facebook page (www.facebook.com/awinningtradition), and Instragram page (search OwensExpressAthletics)...Full game recaps, videos and box scores will be posted at OwensExpress.com each day
The official tournament website can be found at the link here
LIVESTREAM UPDATE
All tournament games will be livestreamed online for free at https://new.livestream.com/accounts/7447771