By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Toledo, Ohio---Jeryn Reese (Mansfield/Mansfield, Ohio) scored 16 of her 24 points in the first half to help the No. 2 Owens Community College women's basketball team stave off an upset and pick up a 76-51 win over Sinclair Community College in the Student Health and Activities Center (SHAC) this afternoon.
With the win, Owens is now 24-0 overall and 11-0 in Ohio Community College Athletic Conference (OCCAC) play. They will travel to Edison Community College for a 5:30 p.m. matchup on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Sinclair fell to 18-6 overall and 7-5 in OCCAC play.
Sinclair led 17-15 through one quarter and trailed by just four at halftime after making four incredible shots. Aaryn Evans and Reanna Dudley each hit desperation 3-pointers with the shot clock running out, while Doriann Carter scored five points off banked in jump shots.
While all that was going on, Reese was almost single-handedly keeping her team in the game. The sophomore forward scored her team's first six points. Moments later, she had four straight to give Owens a 15-10 lead. Sinclair, however, scored the final seven points of the quarter.
In the first quarter, six of Reese's points came directly off of three offensive rebounds.
Dudley's deep, desperation 3-pointer and a free throw from Carter gave Sinclair a 21-16 lead just a minute and a half into the second quarter. Owens responded with a 7-0 run behind a jumper from Brenda Pennington (Bishop Noll/Hammond, Ind.), a jumper from Reese and a 3-pointer from Sybil Roseboro (Elyria/Elyria, Ohio).
With 5:02 left in the half, Carter banked in a 3-pointer to give her team a 26-25 lead. After Sinclair had two chances to increase its lead, Reese grabbed a defensive rebound and found Pennington for a layup to start a 7-0 run.
Reese closed the run with a steal and a free throw to give Owens a 32-26 lead. Carter ended the run with another 3-pointer, but Olivia Frost (North Baltimore/North Baltimore, Ohio) answered it with a 3-pointer as Owens took a 35-31 lead into the break.
Then, in the third quarter, Owens shot 9-for-17 from the field and outscored Sinclair 25-5 to open up a 60-36 lead. In those 10 minutes, Sinclair shot just 2-for-15 from the field with seven turnovers. Ariel Bethea (Huron/Ann Arbor, Mich.) notched five points in the quarter, while Reese, Haili Mossing (Evergreen/Metamora, Ohio) and Kaylah Ivey (Westerville South/Westerville, Ohio) each had four points.
The teams went back-and-forth in the final quarter, while Owens stretched its lead to as many as 26 with 2:04 left on a layup from Bethea.
Reese finished 10-for-16 from the field en route to her game-high 24 points. She added nine rebounds (six offensive) and three steals. Bethea chipped in 13 points off the bench on 6-for-9 shooting, while Pennington added 11 points, five rebounds and four assists. Aside from those three, everyone else scored at least two points, while Ivey had a game-high two blocks.
Defensively, Owens forced 25 turnovers, which led to 25 points going the other way for the offense. In addition, they held an 18-6 advantage in second chance points with eight of those coming from Reese.
Sinclair shot 8-for-18 (44.4 percent) from 3-point range, which was their third best performance of the season. They were led in scoring by Dudley, who had 11 points and a team-high four assists. Madison Connally-Banks added 10 points, while Evans had eight points and a game-high 13 rebounds.
Lauren Roetgerman, who entered today's game averaging 21 points over the past three contests for Sinclair, was held to just three points on 1-for-4 shooting.
NOTES
With her performance today, Reese became the 13th player in program history to record 800 career points. She now has 820, which also moves her past Dawn Spencer (1995-97, 818) for 12th place on the career scoring list. Next up is Ashley Tunstall (2013-15) and Robin Nesper (1995-97), who each scored 837 points.
On top of that, Reese is now one rebound shy of 600 in her career, and she is 65 shy of breaking the program's career record.
Bethea, with her 13 points, now has 600 career points. She is the 30th player in program history to achieve that mark. On the down side, she had her streak of seven straight games with five or more steals snapped with only two today.
Owens is now 46-12 all-time against Sinclair, including a 23-4 mark at home. Head coach Mike Llanas picked up his 25th win against Sinclair in 30 attempts. Furthermore, Owens has won 12 straight in the series and 17 of the past 18.
Following today's win, Owens has now won 38 straight regular season games dating back to Jan. 6 of last season, along with 45 straight regular season conference games dating back to Feb. 8, 2014. Owens is now 70-1 at home since February of 2012, which includes a current 21-game winning streak.