By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Livonia, Mich.---Ariel Bethea's (Huron/Ann Arbor, Mich.) season-high 18 points wasn't enough today as the No. 6 Owens Community College women's basketball team suffered a 73-69 loss to No. 3 Schoolcraft College on the road.
Early on, Schoolcraft converted 14 points in the paint, with six of those coming off turnovers, to hold an 18-15 lead through one, but it could have been worse for Owens. The Schoolcraft lead was nine with 1:39 left, but Owens closed the period on a 6-0 run, highlighted by a 3-point play from Briana Williams (Stebbins/Dayton, Ohio) with 21 seconds left. Bethea stole an inbounds pass with four seconds left, but was unable to convert a layup at the buzzer.
Jeryn Reese (Mansfield/Mansfield, Ohio) then made 1-for-2 at the foul line and hit a second chance layup to tie the game with 9:28 left in the second period. After each team exchanged baskets, Schoolcraft picked up two straight jumpers from Elise Tolbert, followed by a 3-pointer and a layup from Ashley Bland to take a 29-20 lead midway through the period.
Tatyana Reynolds (Rogers/Toledo, Ohio) hit a 3-pointer with 2:40 left to pull Owens within five, but Rainey McCune answered with a 3-pointer for Schoolcraft on the other end. Bland then made a pair of free throws and hit a jumper to give Schoolcraft its largest lead of the half at 12 with 1:06 left.
Lakyn Gulley (South Side/Fort Wayne, Ind.) hit a 3-pointer from the left wing with eight seconds left to make the halftime deficit nine for Owens.
In the third, Schoolcraft led by no fewer than eight through the first seven minutes. Williams hit a pair of free throws to trim the deficit to 11 with 2:58 left, but Tolbert made a pair of free throws and a layup to give Schoolcraft a 52-37 lead with 2:27 left. It marked their largest lead of the game.
At that point, however, Owens caught fire, led by Bethea, who scored seven points down the stretch in the third period to trim the deficit to six entering the fourth.
Bethea and Rikki Scherdt of Schoolcraft traded layups to begin the fourth, and then Williams hit a 3-pointer 50 seconds in to pull Owens within three.
McCune answered back with a 3-pointer and a jumper, with a Williams jumper in between, to keep Schoolcraft up six with 7:14 left.
Aysah Ingram (Trotwood-Madison/Dayton, Ohio) followed that by making the first of two free throws at the line. She missed the second one, but Kyra Johnson (Stevenson/Livonia, Mich.) got the offensive rebound and put it back to pull Owens within three with 6:04 left.
A few minutes later, Ingram scored four straight points to tie the game at 62-all. Then, with two minutes left, an Owens turnover led to a pair of free throws for Bland. Bethea answered with a layup to tie the game with 1:55 left, but T'era Nesbitt hit two more free throws for Schoolcraft to give them a 64-62 lead with 1:38 left.
Another turnover for Owens then led to a Jamyra Wilson fast break layup on the other end. Scherdt followed by making 1-for-2 at the foul line to give Schoolcraft a five point lead with 1:01 left.
Owens wasn't done yet, though, as Bethea hit a jumper and the front end of a pair of free throws. She missed the second, but Reese cleaned it up to pull Owens within two with 21 seconds left.
On the ensuing possession, Schoolcraft missed a pair of free throws, but Bethea was unable to capitalize on the other end as she missed a running one handed floater from the left side. Scherdt missed two more three throws with less than four seconds left, but McCune got the offensive rebound and made a pair of free throws to seal the game.
Bethea finished with five rebounds, five steals and four assists in addition to her 18 points. Ingram added 14 points and seven rebounds off the bench, and Williams totaled 10 points, four assists and three steals. Reese chipped in 11 rebounds.
For Schoolcraft, Bland had 22 points, 11 rebounds, five steals and four assists. Wilson and Tolbert each added 13, and McCune had 10. Scherdt led the way in rebounds with 11.
While Schoolcraft improves to 6-0 with the win, Owens falls to 7-4 overall. They will host Macomb Community College at 1 p.m. next Saturday.