By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Toledo, Ohio---The No. 3 Owens Community College women's basketball team broke the program's regular season winning streak record in a 108-23 win over Lorain County Community College in the Student Health and Activities Center (SHAC) tonight.
With the victory, Owens is now 16-0 overall and 3-0 in Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) play. They will travel to Columbus State Community College on Saturday for a 1 p.m. matchup.
Tonight, though, two big records fell. Not only did Owens win its 30th straight regular season game to eclipse the 2014-15 team's old mark of 29, but they did so in record-setting defensive fashion by setting a new single game record for fewest points allowed in a game, breaking the old mark of 24 set on Nov. 1, 2011 against Lourdes University JV.
The 2015-16 team lost its regular season opener to end the streak set by the 2014-15 team, and the new record started on Jan. 6 of last season, coincidentally in a win against Lorain County.
Owens is now 7-0 all-time against Lorain County, including three straight 100-point performances. On top of that, they have now reached the century mark in two straight and four of the past six games, including six games of at least 100 points this year.
Owens is also now 68-1 at home since February 2012, including 19 straight wins, and they have now won 37 straight regular season conference games, which extends the program record. On top of that, they have outscored their opponents this year by 828 points, which is 80 more points than the total number of points they've allowed. They bumped the team's PPG average up to 95.3, too.
Tonight, Owens scored the game's first 13 points and jumped out to a 24-2 lead in a game that was never a contest. The lead was at 31 when a 13-0 lead stretched the margin above 40. Essence Cowan (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio) made three 3-pointers over the final four minutes of the first half to give Owens a 62-14 lead.
In fact, Owens went on a 22-0 run over a 7:54 stretch that spanned the final 1:21 of the second quarter and into the third. Then, a 12-0 run in the fourth quarter gave Owens a 77-point lead, which was its largest lead of the game.
As a team, Owens only turned the ball over twice. Defensively, they forced two shot clock violations, one 10-second violation and one over and back violation.
Cowan had a team-high 17 points and tied Denissa Sly (Northmont/Englewood, Ohio) for the team-high in steals with five, while adding four assists. Sybil Roseboro (Elyria/Elyria, Ohio) and Kaylah Ivey (Westerville South/Westerville, Ohio) each added 16 points, while both of them combined for 21 rebounds, led by Ivey's team-high 12. Ivey also had a team-high four blocks.
Brenda Pennington (Bishop Noll/Hammond, Ind.) added 15 points and a team-high nine assists, Haili Mossing (Evergreen/Metamora, Ohio) had a season-high 14 points and five rebounds, and Jeryn Reese (Mansfield/Mansfield, Ohio had 12 points along with nine rebounds.
In fact, with her two free throws just 1:26 into the third quarter, Reese passed her mother, Janice Butzin-Reese, on the career scoring list. She added six more points following that and sits at 704, which puts her in 18th place all-time.
Ariel Bethea (Huron/Ann Arbor, Mich.), who was the seventh and final player to score in double figures with 10, added three more steals and is now just eight away from breaking the program's career record. Sly finished with eight points, seven rebounds and five assists in addition to her five steals.
As a team, Owens finished 47-for-93 (50.5 percent) from the field while holding Lorain County to an 8-for-38 (21.1 percent) finish. Lorain County made just two field goals in the second half and scored just nine points.
Owens outrebounded Lorain County 51-28, held a 68-8 advantage in the paint, outscored their bench 32-2 and held a 27-2 advantage in second chance turnovers. On top of all that, they held Lorain County to zero points off turnovers while scoring 56 of their own.
In fact, Owens had three more steals (26) than Lorain County had points. The steal total is a game-high for this year. The two turnovers tonight was also a school record for fewest in a game. The team only went 3-for-5 from the foul line - both season-low totals, but they made 10 or more 3-pointers for the fourth time this year and finished with 47 made field goals, which was just two off the season-high.
Notes
Janice Butzin-Reese scored 697 career points from 1993-95. Her husband, Johntory Reese, played men's basketball at Owens from 1994-96. Their daughter, Jeryn, now has over 700 career points and 500 career rebounds. She is on place for nearly 1,000 career points and 650 career rebounds, the latter of which would break the program's career record.
Tonight's 85-point win was the second largest margin of victory for Owens this year. They have won by 99, 85, 76, 73 and 72. They have won seven games by 50 or more points and nine games by 40 or more points and 14 games by 30 or more points. The closest margin of victory through 16 games was a 22-point win against Sinclair on Dec. 17.
Last year's Owens team finished with a program record nine games of 100 or more points. This year's team has already reached that mark six times through just 16 games.