By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Toledo, Ohio---The Owens Community College men's basketball team fell behind by 15 at halftime and couldn't capitalize on several offensive opportunites down the stretch in an 83-72 loss to Jackson College in the Student Health and Activities Center tonight.
With the loss, Owens is now 9-5 overall this year. They will be back in action Jan. 7 at Hocking College in another non-conference matchup.
Jackson, which improved to 5-6 overall with the win, led 71-56 with 8:11 left in the game when Owens started chipping away. Mason Durden (Whitmer/Toledo, Ohio) made a pair of free throws, and Ty'Rese Searles (Cornerstone/Pontiac, Mich.) drained a 3-pointer to pull Owens within 10.
A layup from Jackson's Michael Bruce capped a 4-0 run and pushed his team's lead back up to 14, but Shondell Jackson (Warren Harding/Warren, Ohio) hit back-to-back layups, and converted a free throw following the second one, to spur a 7-0 run that pulled Owens within seven with 4:57 left.
From there, missed opportunities haunted Owens. Jackson missed a pair of free throws and a 3-pointer that could have cut the deficit to just two. In fact, Owens missed its next eight shots, as well, following Jackson's misses and Marquevious Wilson (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio) picked up a technical foul.
Meanwhile, Jackson College converted several free throws and pushed its lead back up to 13. A pair of late layups from Derrik Jamerson Jr. (Cornerstone/Pontiac, Mich.) and Searles weren't enough in the final 30 seconds as Owens fell to 6-2 at home this year.
Despite his late technical, which fouled him out of the game, Wilson finished 5-for-10 from the field and scored a team-high 15 points. He also had six rebounds, five assists and three steals. Jackson chipped in 14 points, while Jamerson had 12, and Searles had 11.
Searles also added team-highs in rebounds (9), assists (7) and steals (4), while Jamerson had seven rebounds. Durden had a solid game off the bench with eight points, four rebounds and four assists. He scored all of his points from the foul line and finished 8-for-10 from the charity stripe.
Jackson's bigs provided trouble for Owens all game, which led to them holding a 50-40 advantage on the glass. Bruce scored a game-high 18 points and pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds. Tarae Potter added 17 points, five rebounds and five assists, while Dorian Watson had 15 points before fouling out late.
Jackson College scored the game's first four points and led 6-2 following a Tarrence Crumpton layup just 1:50 into the game, which forced Owens head coach Dennis Springs to call a timeout. His team responded with a 7-0 run, which was capped with a dunk from Rico Stafford (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio).
A pair of 3-pointers from Jackson and Wilson over a two-minute stretch gave Owens a pair of small leads, but Potter hit a 3-pointer to tie it with 12:33 left in the first half, and Jordan Moses followed with a dunk as Jackson produced an 8-0 run that gave them a 22-17 lead.
A layup from Jackson pulled Owens within four with 6:48 left, but a 9-0 run pushed his team's deficit to 13, and it became as many as 19 with under two minutes left in the half before Owens cut it to 15 at the break.
Jackson led by as many as 18 in the second half as Owens wasn't able to trim its deficit to single digits until Jackson's 3-point play with 5:19 left.
As a team, Owens shot just 25-for-69 (36.2 percent) from the field, including a 6-for-23 (26.1 percent) finish from 3-point range. They also finished 16-for-25 (64 percent) from the foul line. Meanwhile, Jackson shot 47.8 percent from the field.
Notes
Jackson's fourth-year head coach Carl Thomas is a former Owens assistant. He helped lead the 2012-13 team to an NJCAA Final Four appearance before taking the head job at Jackson in 2013-14. Coincidentally, current Owens head coach Dennis Springs replaced him on the staff.
Owens outscored Jackson 35-31 in the second half.
La'Tre Lane, who is a sophomore guard for Jackson, played for Owens last year before transferring. He did not see any minutes in tonight's game.
Owens was without the services of Roy Hatchett Jr. (Glenville/Cleveland, Ohio) and Derek Reece Jr. (Springfield/Toledo, Ohio) for tonight's game.
James Grays Jr. (Start/Toledo, Ohio), who missed the first 13 games for Owens this year due to an injury, started tonight and had four points and two assists in 18 minutes.