By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Toledo, Ohio---Courizma Williams (Hughes/Cincinnati, Ohio) and Ariel Bethea (Huron/Ann Arbor, Mich.) eached scored 16 to lead four players in double figures as the No. 3 Owens Community College women's basketball team easily defeated Clark State Community College 98-28 at home in the Student Health and Activities Center (SHAC) this afternoon.
With the win, Owens remains undefeated at 19-0 overall and 6-0 in Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) play. They will travel to Lakeland Community College on Wednesday for a 5:30 p.m. matchup. Clark State fell to 2-9 overall and 1-5 in OCCAC play.
As a team, Owens made just 4-for-21 from 3-point range and 12-for-21 from the foul line, but forced 44 turnovers, which led to 61 points going the other way. They also outscored Clark State 62-8 in the paint.
On top of that, the Owens defense stifled Clark State in the second half. They held them without a point in the third quarter and outscored them 44-8 in the second half. In fact, they held Clark State to just 17 points over the game's final 30 minutes. Owens has now held their opponents in conference play to single digits in nine of 24 quarters played.
Owens has now won 33 straight regular season games dating back to Jan. 6 of last year. Additionally, they have won 40 straight regular season conference games dating back to Feb. 8, 2014. They have won 16 of 19 games by at least 30 points, are averaging 95.9 points per game and are outscoring their opponents by 50.8 points per game.
Jeryn Reese (Mansfield/Mansfield, Ohio), who finished with 14 points, nine rebounds and seven steals, now has 753 points in her career. With today's effort, she passed Angie Phegley (2000-02, 747) for 16th on the career scoring list. Next up is Unique Lane (2007-09, 768). Furthermore, she now has 555 career rebounds as she inches closer to Tammy Murphy's record of 663 set from 1996-98.
Bethea, who had six steals, six rebounds and five assists in addition to her 16 points, now has 90 steals this year, which is 14 short of eclipsing Lakyn Gulley's (2015-16, 103) single season record. She already broke the program's career steals record in the win over Edison.
Today, Essence Cowan (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio) scored five points during a 16-3 run to open the game. Williams then scored five of seven points during a stretch that saw Owens take a 23-6 lead with 3:53 left in the first quarter.
Clark State's first nine points came on 3-point field goals. Their first basket in the paint came on a Taylor Johnson layup with 2:26 left in the first quarter. Following that, though, Owens went on a 10-0 run that extended into the second quarter and was capped by a layup from Kaylah Ivey (Westerville South/Westerville, Ohio).
Following Clark State's fourth 3-pointer of the game, Owens went on an 11-0 run to push the lead to 30 with just under three minutes left in the half. Reese scored four points during the stretch, Cowan and Sybil Roseboro (Elyria/Elyria, Ohio), who finished with seven points, five rebounds and five assists, each made 3-pointers, too.
Johnson hit another 3-pointer for Clark State with 1:07 left in the first half, but her team didn't score again until Marlena Channels hit a jump shot with 8:30 left in the third quarter - making for a 12:37 scoreless stretch. During that span, Owens scored 31 straight points, including a jump shot from Olivia Frost (North Baltimore/North Baltimore, Ohio), who saw her first action since missing 10 games due to injury.
After the shot from Channels, Owens scored the game's next 10 points, which closed a 41-2 run. Bethea scored four points during the 10-0 run, and capped it with a steal and a fast break layup with 3:27 left that pushed the lead to 71.
Interestingly enough, Clark State then went on a 6-0 run that prevented Owens from breaking the program's record for fewest points allowed in one half, which is six and was set on Feb. 6, 2002 against Columbus State Community College.
Cowan finished as the fourth and final player to score in double figures. She totaled 12, along with five rebounds and three steals. Ivey had nine points and six rebounds, while Brenda Pennington (Bishop Noll/Hammond, Ind.) had eight points, six assists and four rebounds.
Haili Mossing (Evergreen/Metamora, Ohio) and Denissa Sly (Northmont/Englewood, Ohio) each had six points off the bench, while Frost totaled four in her first action since Dec. 3.
Johnson led Clark State with 16 points and 13 rebounds.