By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information

Cincinnati, Ohio---The Owens Community College men's basketball team got a team-high 19 points from Ty'Rese Searles (Cornerstone/Pontiac, Mich.), but dropped a 92-80 decision to Cincinnati State Technical and Community College on the road this afternoon.

With the loss, Owens fell to 15-6 overall and 6-2 in Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) play, while Cincinnati State improved to 16-5 overall and 8-0 in OCCAC play. Owens, which missed a chance to tie Cincinnati State for first place in the OCCAC, will travel to Cleveland to battle No. 4 Cuyahoga Community College on Wednesday.

Cincinnati State, which finished 12-for-29 from 3-point range, scored six points in the game's first 19 seconds on a pair of 3-pointers and never trailed. Derrik Jamerson Jr. (Cornerstone/Pontiac, Mich.) produced a pair of second chance layups to pull Owens within four, but a Dante Battle free throw with 14:58 left pushed the Owens deficit to eight.

A few minutes later, Desmond Crosby scored eight straight points to give Cincinnati State a 30-17 lead. Rico Stafford (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio) answered with a 3-pointer, and Marquevious Wilson (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio) followed with five straight points to pull Owens within eight.

After a pair of free throws from Battle, Searles hit a 3-pointer to pull Owens within seven. Owens had a chance to get closer, but Wilson had a 3-pointer rim out, and Cincinnati State's Isaiah Bostic answered with a jumper to push the margin back to nine.

With 3:21 left, Wilson and Searles combined for five straight points to pull Owens within five, but Battle hit a 3-pointer and Cincinnati State took a 52-41 lead into the break.

Battle and Corey Sheperd combined for a 5-0 run to give Cincinnati State a 63-46 lead with 15:31 left in the game, which forced a timeout from Owens. James Grays (Start/Toledo, Ohio) responded with a layup out of the timeout, but Cincinnati State pushed the lead to 18 two minutes later, which forced another timeout.

The lead then became as many as 19 and Owens couldn't get the margin under double digits the rest of the way.

Outside of Searles, Stafford finished second on the team in scoring with 18, while adding five rebounds, two assists and one steal. The freshman forward also made a 3-pointer for the second consecutive game after not making one all year prior to that.

Wilson added 15 points, seven rebounds and five assists, and Jamerson had 14 points and a team-high nine rebounds along with two assists, two steals and one block.

Crosby and Sheperd each led Cincinnati State with 20 points, while Battle finished with 17.

As a team, Cincinnati State had just eight turnovers - opposed to 17 from Owens. That led to a 25-5 advantage in points off turnovers for Cincinnati State, which also outproduced the Owens bench 36-11.

Owens was without starting point guard Roy Hatchett Jr. (Glenville/Cleveland, Ohio) and lost Derek Reece Jr. (Springfield/Holland, Ohio) after less than a minute of action due to injury.  

These two teams will meet again on March 4 to close out the regular season.