By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information

Circleville, Ohio---The Owens Community College men's basketball team was outscored by 30 in the paint in an 84-58 loss to No. 5 Cuyahoga Community College in a Region XII District 11 semifinal at Ohio Christian University tonight.

With the loss, Owens ends its season with a 23-9 record, while Cuyahoga (28-2) advances to face No. 17 Cincinnati State Technical and Community College in tomorrow's 3 p.m. Region XII District 11 championship game.

Owens opened the game by shooting 6-for-11 from the field over the first six plus minutes, which allowed them to take a 16-10 lead. Ty'Rese Searles (Cornerstone/Pontiac, Mich.) scored eight points during the stretch, while Owens scored 12 of the 16 from 3-point range.

From there, Cuyahoga scored six straight to tie the game. Rico Stafford (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio) then had back-to-back layups for Owens, but Cuyahoga answered on the other end each time.

Marquevious Wilson (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio) then made a 3-pointer to give Owens a 23-20 lead with 10:32 left in the half. Cuyahoga bounced back quickly with four straight, but a jumper from Stafford and a 3-pointer from Roy Hatchett Jr. (Glenville/Cleveland, Ohio) gave Owens a 28-26 lead.

Cuyahoga, however, took control from there. Brad Karn drilled a 3-pointer immediately following Hatchett's 3-pointer, and his team scored 12 straight and closed the half on a 21-2 run to open up a 47-30 lead.

Just under two minutes into the second half, Cuyahoga's Devon Robinson hit a layup to close a 5-0 run to open the half and finish off a 26-2 run.

Ramon Sheffield threw down a one-handed jam with 16:08 left to push the lead to 24, and Elmange Watson's jumper pushed it to 26 six minutes later.

Stafford, Jamerson and Wilson combined for a 7-2 run that pulled Owens within 17 with 6:04 left, but Cuyahoga closed the game on an 11-2 run.

Wilson led Owens with 14 points, six rebounds, six assists and four steals on 6-for-11 shooting, while Stafford and Jamerson each chipped in 13 points. Searles was the fourth player in double figures with 11 points.

Outside of those four, Owens got seven points from its other five players, including just two points off the bench. The team was without starting guard Shondell Jackson (Warren Harding/Warren, Ohio), who was injured in the team's quarterfinal win over Clark State on Tuesday.

Cuyahoga was led by Quintin Dove, who had a game-high 16 points on 8-for-10 shooting. Wade Lowman added 15 points and nine rebounds, Robinson had 10 points and four steals, and Sheffield chipped in 13 points on 6-for-8 shooting.

Cuyahoga's bench outscored Owens 41-2 and produced a 56-26 advantage in scoring in the paint. The game featured three ties and 10 lead changes - all in the first half. Owens also had 23 turnovers, which led to 30 points for Cuyahoga on the other end.

Owens stayed in the game for much of the first half due to its long range shooting, and the team finished 9-for-21 (42.9 percent) from 3-point range. Cuyahoga, however, finished 34-for-64 (53.1 percent) from the field and finished 12-for-19 from the foul line compared to 1-for-6 for Owens.

NOTES

Tonight's loss marked the second straight season that Owens had its season end with a loss to Cuyahoga. The Challengers defeated Owens in the district quarterfinals last year.

Today's semifinal appearance was the fifth time in the past six years Owens reached the district final four. The team's last championship was in 2012-13, but the team also finished as the runner up in 2011-12, 2013-14 and 2014-15 with the last two runner-up finishes coming on buzzer-beating losses.

Jamerson, who was limited to 24 minutes because of first half foul trouble, finished his career 223-for-492 (45.3 percent) from 3-point range, including a 120-for-243 (49.4 percent) sophomore year. In doing so, he finished 20 attempts shy of breaking the single season attempts record held by Justin Edmonds (262, 2011-12).

Jamerson did, however, break the single game and career 3-point records for makes and attempts, as well as the single season 3-pointers made record. On top of that, his 49.4 percent finish this year broke Shaakir Lindsey's record of 46.6 percent from 2014-15. His 45.3 percent career finish fell just shy of Manny Durden's 46.6 percent career from 1989-91.

On top of all that, Jamerson finished with 970 career points - just 30 shy of becoming the third 1,000 point scorer at Owens over the past five seasons.

Stafford finished his season by shooting at least 50 percent in 17 of his final 18 games, including 25 of 32 games overall. He finished the season 181-for-288 (62.8 percent) from the field.

Hatchett finished his sophomore campaign with 247 assists, which was 48 shy of breaking Otis "Chip" Smith's record of 294 from 1989-90. He also finished with 344 assists in his career and had five or more assists in all by two games as a sophomore.