By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Circleville, Ohio---Ashley Tunstall (Huber Heights Wayne/Dayton, Ohio) made sure the No. 2 Owens Community College women's basketball team pulled out a 67-46 win over Sinclair Community College today in the Region XII District I semifinals.
With the victory, Owens improved to 30-1 overall. It was the team's 30th straight win, and it broke the 1997-98 team's record of 29 wins in a single season. Most importantly, Owens will move on to its third straight district championship game against Columbus State Community College at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
Tunstall finished 8-for-13 from the field and 4-for-6 from the foul line for 20 points, and five of her 13 rebounds came on the offensive glass. Early on, she scored 12 of the team's first 19 points, and Owens jumped out to a 23-7 lead with 9:27 left in the half.
After Sinclair trimmed its deficit to 11, Owens finished the half on a 13-2 run to take a 40-18 lead into the break. Briana Williams (Stebbins/Dayton, Ohio) hit two 3-pointers and Tatyana Reynolds (Rogers/Toledo, Ohio) added another as Owens hit three straight 3-pointers to end the half.
In the second half, Tunstall scored her team's first four points to make it 44-22 lead with 15:50 remaining. From there, however, Owens went scoreless over the next five minutes and produced only four points over the next nine minutes.
Despite all that, the Owens defense held Sinclair down during that stretch, and they still held a 49-33 lead with 6:58 remaining.
From there, Owens went on a 10-0, spurred by a pair of free throws from Sierra Harley (Africentric/Columbus, Ohio), a layup from Courizma Williams (Hughes/Cincinnati, Ohio) and a 3-pointer from Kheri Motley (West Bloomfield/West Bloomfield, Mich.), to take a 59-33 lead with 4:45 remaining.
Down the stretch, Owens led by as many as 27 points before pulling out the 21-point victory.
Aside from Tunstall, LaKayra Carlisle (Pershing/Detroit, Mich.) added six points, 10 rebounds and two assists. In the scoring column, Harley and Briana Williams each added nine points, with all of the nine from Williams coming from 3-point range.
Reynolds added seven points off the bench as Owens finished 24-for-68 (35.3 percent) from the field and 5-for-22 (22.7 percent) from 3-point range. They were helped by a 14-for-17 (82.4 percent) finish from the foul line.
Sinclair finishes their season 19-12 overall. They were led today by O'Sha Owens, who had 22 points and six rebounds. The next closest player in scoring was Alona Skipper with seven. Sara Thornton added 10 rebounds.
Notes
Columbus State (21-4) defeated Cincinnati State (19-12) in the other semifinal today.