By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Nelsonville, Ohio---Jeryn Reese (Mansfield/Mansfield, Ohio) produced a double-double, and Ariel Bethea (Huron/Ann Arbor, Mich.) came within four steals of tying the single game record as the No. 3 Owens Community College women's basketball team remained undefeated with a 109-36 win over Hocking College on the road today.
With the win, Owens is now 15-0 this year. Not only did they extend their record for best start to a season, but they tied the program's record for longest regular season winning streak at 29, which dates back to Jan. 6 of last year. The matchup, which was also the first-ever between the two teams, saw Hocking fall to 2-9 overall. Owens will be back in action on Wednesday at home against Lorain County Community College at 5:30 p.m.
On top of tying the program's regular season winning streak record, Owens has now outscored its opponents by 753 points, and they've only given up 715 during that stretch. They haven't won a game by fewer than 22 and are outscoring opponents by 50.2 points per game.
Furthermore, the 109-point effort marks the fifth time the team has reached the century mark this year. It is the third highest single game output of the five.
Reese finished with a game and season-high 24 points, along with 10 rebounds (six offensive), while adding three assists, three steals and one block. Bethea added 15 points, nine steals, seven assists, four rebounds and two blocks.
In addition to those two, everybody else scored at least six points and five players reached double figures. Sybil Roseboro (Elyria/Elyria, Ohio) finished second on the team in scoring with a season-high 18 points, while adding six assists and five rebounds. Courizma Williams (Hughes/Cincinnati, Ohio) scored 13.
Denissa Sly (Northmont/Englewood, Ohio), who missed the past five games due to injury, had season-highs in points (10) and rebounds (8) to round out the double figure scorers.
Brenda Pennington (Bishop Noll/Hammond, Ind.) and Kaylah Ivey (Westerville South/Westerville, Ohio) each added eight points, while Ivey also chipped in nine rebounds and tied her season-high with six blocks.
Essence Cowan (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio) added seven points, seven rebounds and seven assists. Her rebound and assist totals both tied her season-high. Haili Mossing (Evergreen/Metamora, Ohio) rounded out the scoring with six points and seven rebounds.
Owens out-rebounded Hocking 57-28 and held scoring advantages in points off turnovers (39-6), second chance points (23-4), points in the paint (68-12) and bench points (44-4). They led by as many as 76.
Defensively, Owens held Hocking to just two points in the second quarter and eight in the third. They scored more points in the second quarter alone (37) than Hocking did the entire game.
Reese had four points early as Owens took a 9-0 lead through two minutes. Hocking scored in the final minute to pull within 13, and then Owens really took control in the second quarter. They opened the quarter on a 27-0 run and then scored the final 10 points to take a 62-14 lead.
Hocking was also held scoreless from 2:14 left in the second quarter to 6:46 left in the third. During that stretch, Owens went on a 20-0 run that included a 10-0 run to close the half and a 10-0 run to open the second half.
Hocking's Macy McCollister, who scored 46 points just two games ago and was averaging 35.5 points over the past two games, was held scoreless until her 3-pointer with 6:46 left ended the aforementioned run.
Following a 3-pointer from Brandy Merritt that pulled her team within 56 with 3:06 left in the third, Owens scored the game's next 12 points to open up a 90-22 lead.
A 13-3 run followed that as Owens took a 105-30 lead. Hocking's Jena Cozad hit a 3-pointer with 1:27 left for the game's final points.
Notes
Williams and Bethea each entered the game just 40 points shy of 500 in their careers. Bethea, though, added nine assists to her career total and is now just 11 steals away from breaking the program's record of 176. She now has six or more steals in six of her past seven games. She came within four steals of tying Demy Whitaker's record of 13 steals in game, and she has now moved up to fifth in the nation in steals per game at 4.6.
Williams has scored 11 or more in six straight games now. She bumped her season scoring average up to 10.1 per game today.
Reese now has 692 points and 512 rebounds in her career. She now sits 19th on the career scoring list and is only six points away from passing her mother, Janice Butzin-Reese (697, 1993-95), on the list for 18th place. The younger Reese passed Becky Knannlein (668, 1994-96), Mackenzie Heacock (681, 2011-13), Uniqua Mitchell (688, 2011-13), Sarah Clark (689, 2008-10) and Jeanne Bockey (692, 2007-09) today.
Roseboro, who had her streak of six or more rebounds in six straight games snapped today, was able to record at least three assists for the seventh time in the past nine games. She also scored in double figures for the third time in four games and bumped her season average up to 8.1 per contest.
Ivey's six blocks tied her season-high that she set on Dec. 14 against Cuyahoga. Today, she had her streak of at least one offensive rebound in every game this year snapped.
Mossing recorded at least five rebounds for the seventh straight game. She is now averaging 4.9 per contest this year, and she is the team's leader in free throw percentage at 91.7 percent.