By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information

Cincinnati, Ohio---The Owens Community College men's basketball team used a strong second half to upend Cincinnati State Technical and Community College 90-77 in their regular season finale tonight.

Owens improved to 18-12 overall and closed conference play with a 9-5 record, which is good for a third place tie with Lakeland Community College. They will open postseason play on Tuesday at home against Cuyahoga Community College at 7 p.m. in a Region XII District 11 quarterfinal.

A back-and-forth first half saw Cincinnati State take 35-28 lead with 7:19 left following a pair of 3-pointers from Justin Baker and Corey Smith. Prior to that, neither team had led by more than four in a first half that featured four ties and seven lead changes.

Following that, Owens used some long distance shooting of its own in the form of Derrik Jamerson Jr. (Cornerstone/Pontiac, Mich.), who hit back-to-back 3-pointers off assists from Dae'Shawn Jackson (Springfield/Springfield, Ohio) and Ty'Rese Searles (Cornerstone/Pontiac, Mich.).

Moments later, Charles Penn III (Macomb Dakota/Detroit, Mich.) joined the action with a 3-pointer, followed by a three point play to pull Owens within one with 3:19 left. After a missed layup from Cincinnati State, Penn made a pair of free throws to complete a personal 8-0 run and give Owens a one point lead.

Xavier Cochran (Huron/Ann Arbor, Mich.) followed with four straight points, and Penn III closed the half with a layup to give Owens a 48-45 lead despite a jumper from Baker in the final seconds.

Owens came out of the locker room strong and stretched their lead to 11 in just three minutes on the strength of a layup and a jumper from Penn III and a pair of 3-pointers from Jamerson Jr.

Cincinnati State was able to trim the deficit to seven a short time later via a jumper from Baker, but Tariq Scott (R.J. Reynolds/Winston Salem, N.C.) hit a jumper, Jackson converted a three point play, and Cochran hit a jumper to give Owens a 67-55 lead at the midway point of the half.

From there, Owens never led by fewer than 10, while stretching their lead to as many as 18 on a 3-pointer from Dilyn Good (Springfield/Holland, Ohio) with 1:44 left and a pair of free throws from Scott with 47 seconds left.

Good's 3-pointer came via the 15th assist of the day from Roy Hatchett Jr. (Glenville/Cleveland, Ohio), who set a new season-high in that category.

A big strength for Owens in the second half was their bench players, who outscored Cincinnati State's bench 16-2 in the final 20 minutes.

As a team, Owens shot 30-for-55 (54.5 percent) from the field, which included a 12-for-28 (42.9 percent) finish from 3-point range. The largest long distance success against Cincinnati State was Jamerson Jr., who finished 5-for-8, while Cochran finished 3-for-4.

Penn III scored a season-high 25 points on 8-for-12 shooting, including an 8-for-11 mark from the foul line. He added seven rebounds and one block, while Cochran went 7-for-8 from the field and 3-for-3 from the foul line while totaling 20 points and a team-high eight rebounds.

In addition to those two players, Jamerson tallied 18 points, seven rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Jackson also had 12 points, four rebounds, five assists and two blocks, one of which included an emphatic stuff of a layup attempt from Baker in the first half.

Owens also finished 18-for-23 (78.3 percent) from the foul line to go along with their fine performance from the field.

Baker led Cincinnati State (14-16, 3-11 OCCAC) with 23 points, nine assists, four steals and four rebounds on 9-for-21 shooting. Joshua Santos (17), Smith (17) and Isiah Bostic (14) also scored in double figures.

Overall, Owens outscored Cincinnati State 31-2 in bench points and 30-18 in the paint.

Notes

Penn III is now averaing 19.5 points per game over the past four contests. He also has reached seven rebounds in three of those games.

With his five trey balls today, Jamerson Jr. eclipsed the century mark in that category today. He is 101-for-240 (42.1 percent). He is 12 away from breaking Jeff Massey's (1991-92) record of 112 in a season and 23 away from the attempts mark of 262 set by Justin Edmonds in 2011-12.