By Chris Schmidbauer, Sports Information Director
Toledo, OH -- It took some heroics thanks to King Goss for Owens to grab their 14th win of the season, dispatching Terra State 91-90 in a thriller on Wednesday evening. Goss's jumper, with 0.2 seconds left, would give Owens just enough to get past the Titans.
The Express would get out to a hot start, jumping out to a 20-8 lead in the first five and a half minutes of the game. Owens would trade buckets with Terra State, but the home team would still lead by 12 points with 9:57 to play in the first half at 30-18. That's when the Titans got hot from the field. The visitors would storm back, outscoring the Express by nine points over the final minutes of the first half. Owens would maintain a slim three point lead at 51-48 at halftime.
The hot shooting would continue for the Titans, as they would start the second half on a 12-3 run and take a six point lead at 60-54 at the 16:11 mark of the second half on a Kirwan Taylor three. The two teams would trade buckets back and forth throughout much of the half. However, Terra State would hold the lead throughout much of the half.
Owens would trail by five points with 3:31 to play, when Jaelin Ferrell would knock down a three to pull the Express within a basket at 82-80. After Reggie Robinson split a pair of free throws, a Jacob Cousino layup with 2:27 to play would give Owens their first lead since the 16:54 mark of the second half.
Terra State would answer back with a three out of a timeout courtesy of Jaki Royal, but Ferrell would answer back with a three of his own to help the Express regain the lead. Not to be outdone, Andrew Burner would hit a three with 1:02 to play to give Terra State the lead back at 88-86.
The Titans would go up four with 20 seconds left to play on a layup from Norman Lindsay, but King Goss would be fouled in the act of shooting a three. He would make all three free throws to trim Terra State's lead back to one at 90-89.
Terra State's Kirwin Taylor would be fouled with eight seconds, sending him to the charity stripe. Taylor would miss the front end of a one and one, setting up Goss's heroics.
Goss would hit a shot from the left elbow with under a second to play to give Owens the victory.
Owens was led in scoring by Jaelin Ferrell, who finished with 29 points on 10-22 shooting and 9-19 shooting from beyond the arc. He also finished with four rebounds.
Three other starters would finish in double figures scoring. Anthony Mills would tally 19 points and an efficient 8-14 from the floor. He would also lead the team in assists with five. King Goss would score 21 points on 6-11 shooting from the field and a 6-7 effort from the free throw line. Finally, Reggie Robinson would score 11 points and grab a team high 12 rebounds for a double-double, his third of the season.
As a team, Owens would shoot 48.5% (32-66) from the field and 45% (18-40) from beyond the arc. Terra State would shoot 50% (34-68) from the floor and 45.2% (14-31) from three in the contest. The Titans were led in scoring by Toledo native Keyshawn Leach, who had 20 points of the bench.
Owens improves to 14-13 overall and they are 5-4 in the OCCAC. Terra State falls to 7-11 overall on the year.
The Express will travel to Columbus this Saturday to take on the Cougars. Tip off against Columbus State is scheduled for 3 PM. The Express won the first meeting between the two teams 102-89 back on February 1st.