By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Dayton, Ohio---Ty'Rese Searles (Cornerstone/Pontiac, Mich.) hit a floating jumper in the paint with 12.6 seconds left to help the Owens Community College men's basketball team produce an 84-81 win over No. 4 Sinclair Community College on the road yesterday.
Owens, who was led by head coach Dennis Springs for the first time, improved to 8-4 overall and 1-1 in Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) play. Sinclair, who came into the game undefeated, fell to 10-1 overall this year and 1-1 in OCCAC play.
The shot by Searles, which put Owens up 82-81, came after Sinclair's Akiean Frederick made one of two free throws with 24.3 seconds left to give his team the lead. Following the shot, Sinclair's Dwayne Chastain Jr. was called for traveling after getting caught in the air trying to pass the ball. Searles was fouled on the enusing inbounds pass and made both free throws with six seconds left.
Frederick missed a very deep fadeaway 3-pointer as time expired. His team had advanced the ball past halfcourt and called a timeout with three seconds left to set up the play.
Searles produced a season-high 21 points along with six assists. He finished 8-for-13 from the field, including a 3-for-5 finish from 3-point range. Shondell Jackson (Warren Harding/Warren, Ohio) finished second on the team in scoring with 18 points, while adding six rebounds. Marquevious Wilson (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio) added a season-high 15 points along with three assists and three steals, while Derrik Jamerson Jr. (Cornerstone/Pontiac, Mich.) had 12 points, two steals and two blocks.
As a team, Owens finished 29-for-57 (50.9 percent) from the field and 11-for-24 (45.8 percent) from 3-point range. They also made 15-for-18 (83.3 percent) from the foul line and scored 24 points off turnovers. Furthermore, Owens picked up the win despite getting out rebounded 44-24, as well as being outscored 54-34 in the paint and 18-2 in second chance points.
Frederick, who was a member of the Owens basketball team for the first half of the 2014-15 season as a redshirt before transferring to Sinclair, put on an impressive performance to lead his team. He went 12-for-20 from the field for 30 points and totaled eight rebounds (four offensive). He was aided by 19 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals from Jaquan Harrison.
Early on in the game, Frederick scored seven of his team's first nine points and assisted on the other two points. His team eventually led 19-11 following a steal and a dunk from Harrison with 12:27 left in the first half.
Searles answered with a 3-pointer and then dished to Rico Stafford (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio) for a fast break dunk as Owens quickly trimmed its deficit to three. Following that, Owens would pull within three four more times over the next five minutes. The first came on a Jamerson 3-pointer with 10:18 left, the second on a Jackson layup with 8:58 left, the third on a 3-pointer from Derek Reece Jr. (Springfield/Toledo, Ohio) and the final time came on a Wilson layup.
In fact, Wilson's layup marked the final two points of a personal 5-0 run, which wouldn't be the first time he did that in the game. This time, though, Sinclair, quickly responded with eight straight points. Frederick got the run started with a corner 3-pointer and his team eventually led 40-29 with 3:34 left in the half.
The Owens defense then forced four turnovers in the final two minutes and outscored Sinclair 8-2 heading into halftime. Roy Hatchett Jr. (Glenville/Cleveland, Ohio) got the run started with a 3-pointer and Jackson finished the half's scoring with a layup. Hatchett missed a rushed 3-pointer at the buzzer following the fourth turnover.
Frederick started the second half with a layup as his team scored the first five points and eventually pushed its lead to 15 over the first 10 minutes.
Down 69-54, Owens got a 3-pointer from Searles and a jumper in the paint from Jamerson to quickly trim the deficit to 10. The game's turning point came following that as Chastain ripped the ball from Jamerson before he reached mid-court and went in for a two-handed dunk. Following the play, he stared down Jamerson and was hit with a taunting technical.
Jamerson hit both free throws to essentially cancel out Chastain's dunk, and more importantly it swung the momentum back in favor of Owens. Wilson, who then came in off the bench for Hatchett, quickly converted a 3-point play. He followed with two more free throws and Searles added a layup on an assist from Wilson. The 9-0 run pull Owens within three with 6:31 left.
Frederick scored three straight points to double his team's lead, but Owens didn't relent. Wilson made another layup, followed by a 3-pointer to give him 10 points in a four minute span and pull his team within one.
Once again, Frederick responded, this time with a jumper in the paint, but Jackson answered him with a jumper for Owens. Harrison made 1-for-2 at the foul line, but Jamerson made two free throws to tie the game up at 77 apiece with 1:55 left. It was the first time Sinclair had not led since each team went scoreless over the first 54 seconds of the game.
At that point, Harrison converted a 3-point play to put his team up 80-77. Jackson answered on the other end with a 3-pointer for Owens from the left wing to tie the game up and set up the final 30 seconds.
In the second half, the Owens bench produced 26 points.
In addition to the scoring leaders, Owens got nine assists, six points and five rebounds from Hatchett. He remains second in the nation at 8.5 assists per game.
Next Up
Owens will return home for a non-conference matchup against Kellogg Community College on Tuesday beginning at 7:30 p.m. The game will be the second end of a doubleheader with the women starting at 5:30 p.m.
Head coach Dennis Springs, who took over the team following the resignation of Dave Clarke due to family reasons on Friday, is a Toledo Scott High School graduate. He is the program's first African-American head coach, and it was the program's first midseason coaching change since December of 1984 when Jamie Gill replaced D.J. Cameron.