By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Livonia, Mich.---Kaylah Ivey (Westerville South/Westerville, Ohio) paced the No. 3 Owens Community College women's basketball team with 14 points and 13 rebounds in an 81-42 win on the road over No. 15 Schoolcraft College tonight.
With the win, Owens improved to 3-0 this year heading into a big weekend in the KVCC Invitational in Kalamazoo, Mich., where they will take on No. 12 Kalamazoo Valley Community College on Friday and Grand Rapids Community College on Saturday.
In tonight's game, Jeryn Reese (Mansfield/Mansfield, Ohio) scored the game's opening basket as Owens jumped out to a 6-2 lead despite a slow offensive start from the team. Ivey and Denissa Sly (Northmont/Englewood, Ohio) then combined for seven of the team's next 10 points as Owens led 16-2 with just 2:08 left in the first quarter.
The Owens defense held Schoolcraft without a made field goal until 1:42 left in the quarter when Taia Parker made a layup. Kamryn Troike (St. Wendelin/Fostoria, Ohio) responded with a layup for Owens, but the home team ended up closing the quarter on a 6-2 run to trim their deficit to 10 entering the second.
Victoria Robinson converted a layup for Schoolcraft with 6:41 left in the first half to pull her team back within 10, but Owens went on an 11-0 run that was capped by a jumper from Olivia Frost (North Baltimore/North Baltimore, Ohio) with 1:43 left that put her team up 36-15.
Following a jumper from Essence Cowan (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio) and a pair of free throws from Sly, Robinson closed the half's scoring with a layup to keep the margin at 21.
The Owens offense missed its first two shots of the second half before a layup from Reese pushed the lead back to 21. Following a jumper from Schoolcraft's Parker, Cowan hit a layup, followed by a 3-pointer, a steal and another layup for a personal 7-0 run that kickstarted a 19-0 run by Owens that put them up 61-23 with three minutes left in the third quarter.
Troike then scored the final five points of the quarter for Owens as they led 66-27 through three. She then continued her spurt with four straight points to open the fourth before Haley Pickard (Genoa/Genoa, Ohio) ended her run with a steal and a fast break layup.
Following Pickard's layup, Owens went without a point for nearly four minutes until Courizma Williams (Hughes/Cincinnati, Ohio) hit a 3-pointer from the right wing to give Owens a 75-35 lead with 4:25 left in the game.
Following the bucket from Williams, Ivey scored six points over the final two minutes of the game to finish off the win.
Aside from Ivey's 14 and 13, Troike added 11 points in just nine minutes of action on 5-for-6 shooting, and Cowan had 11 points and two steals. Ariel Bethea (Huron/Ann Arbor, Mich.) contributed nine points, six rebounds, four assists and two steals. Frost also chipped in 10 rebounds, three steals and three blocks along with her four points. Sly had a team-high four steals.
Reese had six points and seven rebounds as her streak of 22 straight games in double figure scoring came to an end.
Parker led No. 15 Schoolcraft with 14 points.
Owens head coach Michael Llanas is now just three wins away from 300 in his career.