By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Toledo, Ohio---With some veteran guards and a highly regarding recruiting class, the Owens Community College men's basketball team begins its 2016-17 regular season tomorrow with a 8 p.m. road matchup against Mercyhurst North East Community College.
Despite losing Manny Durden II (Springfield/Holland, Ohio) and Jalen Huff (William T. Dwyer/Riviera Beach, Fla.), who are a pair of highly regarded players, due to injuries during the preseason, sixth-year head coach Dave Clarke is excited about the potential of this year's team.
"We have a great group of guys," Clarke said. "I think we're very athletic, and we play hard. That's a compliment to them that so far this year they've competed against some really good teams. I'm excited. The first game is always nervous because you don't know what you're going to get execution wise. We're a work in progress like everyone else is, but we have a lot of upside, and I think we're going to be a lot better as the season goes on.
In a program with high expectations each year, last year's team finished 18-13 overall and 9-5 in Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) play, which saw the team finish tied for third place in the conference and exit the postseason with a loss in the Region XII District 11 quarterfinals. Despite that, the program has won at least a share of two of the past three OCCAC championships and made a district championship game appearance in four of the past five seasons.
"We have a lot of transfers who are going to come in and play," Clarke said. "I think our bigs are some of the best I've ever had here as a group, and I'm hoping they can really lead us on the glass. I think this will be an exciting season. I think we're going to play a style of basketball that a lot of fans are going to want to watch."
Two of those transfers were expected to be Durden and Huff, but there's still a ton of talent on the roster. Aside from those two, transfers such as 6-6 guard Shondell Jackson (Warren Harding/Warren, Ohio), 6-7 forward Jaylen Tucker (Northland/Columbus, Ohio), 6-6 forward Derek Reece Jr. (Springfield/Toledo, Ohio) and 6-5 forward James Grays (Start/Toledo, Ohio) are expected to help Owens in the post.
Furthermore, Clarke and his coaching staff brought in 6-8 forward Luke Mayer (Davidson/Hilliard, Ohio) and 6-6 forward Rico Stafford (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio) to help the team's depth in the post. At guard, the team's first-year players include Jamiri Bennett (Maumee/Toledo, Ohio), Mason Durden (Whitmer/Toledo, Ohio), who is Manny's younger brother, and Marquevious Wilson (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio). Many of the freshmen will play multiple positions, however.
In terms of experience, the team is led by 6-5 sophomore guard Derrik Jamerson Jr. (Cornerstone/Pontiac, Mich.), who averaged 14.2 points, a team-high 6.8 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game last year. He finished second on the team in scoring behind Xavier Cochran (Huron/Ypsilanti, Mich.), who will play at NCAA Division I University of Albany this year. Jamerson Jr. shot 41.4 percent from 3-point range and made at least one 3-pointer in all but one game.
In addition to Jamerson Jr., Owens also returns a pair of experienced sophomore point guards in Ty'Rese Searles (Cornerstone/Pontiac, Mich.) and Roy Hatchett Jr. (Glenville/Cleveland, Ohio). Searles finished third on last year's team in scoring with 11.7 points, three rebounds and three assists per game. He also finished seventh in the league in 3-point field goal percentage at 40 percent. Hatchett Jr. averaged 5.7 points, 2.3 rebounds and a team-high 4.2 assists per game last year.
This year's roster can be found here.
CONFERENCE OUTLOOK
Owens was selected to finish second in the OCCAC this year by the conference's head coaches. Sinclair Community College, who won last year's regular season title, was picked to finish first for the second straight year. Columbus State Community College, which finished second last year, was selected to finish third.
This year's conference season will feature nine teams, as well as Hocking College, which enters the league this year in probationary status, which means the games against them will not count towards the league record. Instead, they will only count towards each team's overall record.
Columbus State dropped down to compete at the NCAA Division III level this year, and they will join Hocking College and Lorain County Community College as the league's three teams competing at that level.
WINNING TRADITION, MOVING PLAYERS ON
In his five years at Owens, Clarke has led the program to a 118-44 record, including a 51-13 record in OCCAC play. The team has won two OCCAC regular season championships, made one National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) Division II Final Four and appeared in four Region XII District I championship games.
Impressively, during Clarke's tenure, Owens has sent 20 players to four-year schools including seven to NCAA Division I schools - Xavier Cochran (University of Albany), Kenny Jones (Austin Peay State University), John Murry (Austin Peay State University), Justin Edmonds (Marshall University), James Kelly (University of Miami/Marshall University), Bikramjit Gill (Ball State University) and Joe Retic II (Liberty University).
Kelly was nearly the Conference USA Player of the Year as a senior last year. He is currently playing professionally in South Korea, where he scored 24 points in each of his first two games and is averaging 52.6 percent from the field, along with 13.5 rebounds per contest. Gill is also playing professionally in Japan, Edmonds is expected to play somewhere in Spain, Retic II is expected to sign somewhere in Canada and Andy Bachman, who went on to play NCAA Division II basketball at Tiffin University following his time at Owens, will play professionally in England. Furthermore, Jones and Murry both appeared in the NCAA tournament last year for Austin Peay and will be seniors this year, and Cochran will be a sophomore at Albany after his one-and-done career at Owens.
OPENER
This year's team will open its season against Mercyhurst North East Community College at 8 p.m. tomorrow. The Saints, located in North East, Pa., feature a first-year head coach in Shannon Pulliam, who spent the previous 17 years as the head boys basketball coach at Strong Vincent High School. Last year's team went 16-13 overall and won a school record 11 games in a row at one point.
Beyond tomorrow, this year's schedule can be found here.
FOLLOW OWENS ONLINE
This year, Owens will be live streaming all home games via our YouTube page, where you can also find feature stories and post game interviews. You can visit our schedule page at OwensExpress.com for individual streaming links throughout the season. We will also be streaming several road games, and we will have live stats for nearly every game. In addition, you can get live game updates throughout the season on our Twitter page (@owensexpress). We'll post photo albums, game recaps and various items at our Facebook page, which came be found by searching Owens Express Athletics, and we'll have great photos and videos at our Instagram page, which can also be found by searching Owens Express Athletics.
#RideTheTrain