By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Toledo, Ohio---Six players scored in double figures as the No. 2 Owens Community College women's basketball team routed Hocking College 101-36 in the Student Health and Activities Center (SHAC) this afternoon.
With a victory in the non-conference matchup, Owens improved to 27-0 this year. They will next play on Wednesday at home against Lakeland Community College at 5:30 p.m. with a chance to clinch at least a share of the program's fifth straight conference championship with a win.
Today's scoring output represented the 10th time Owens has reached the century mark this year, which breaks the previous record set by last year's team. This year's team now has 10 of the 55 100-point games in program history, and 24 of those 55 have come since the start of the 2014-15 season.
On top of that, Owens has now won 41 straight regular season games dating back to Jan. 6 of last season.
Kaylah Ivey (Westerville South/Westerville, Ohio) scored a team-high 17 points and pulled down eight rebounds. Eight of her points came in the final quarter as she finished 8-for-9 from the field, while also adding two steals.
Brenda Pennington (Bishop Noll/Hammond, Ind.), who came off the bench for the first time this year, responded with 14 points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals on 7-for-9 shooting in just 17 minutes.
Jeryn Reese (Mansfield/Mansfield, Ohio), Ariel Bethea (Huron/Ann Arbor, Mich.) and Courizma Williams (Hughes/Cincinnati, Ohio) each added 12 points. Reese tied Ivey for the team-high in rebounds with eight, while Williams also had six rebounds, three assists and three steals.
Essence Cowan (Lima Senior/Lima, Ohio) was the final player to reach double figures. She finished with 11 points, five rebounds and two steals.
As a team, Owens shot 44-for-84 (52.4 percent) from the field despite a 4-for-17 (23.5 percent) finish from 3-point range. They made 9-for-10 from the foul line, while forcing 29 turnovers defensively, which led to 39 points for the offense. Owens also out-rebounded Hocking 58-21, including a 27-7 advantage on the offensive glass, as they held a 40-8 advantage in second chance points.
Owens scored the game's first 10 points and didn't allow a field goal until Hocking's Macy McCollister hit a layup with 4:13 left in the first quarter. Then, during an 8:06 stretch from the final minute of the quarter until late in the first half, Owens went on a 20-0 run to open up a 42-6 lead.
Hocking made a trio of 3-pointers in the final 2:43 of the half, but trailed 52-15 at the break. Owens scored the final 13 points of the third quarter, which was capped by a 3-pointer from Williams, to take a 78-19 lead.
Hocking scored 17 points in the final quarter, which was just two fewer than they had in the first three quarters combined, but Owens had 23 to pull out the 65-point win. Incredibly, that is the eighth highest margin of victory for the team this year.
Denissa Sly (Northmont/Englewood, Ohio), who made her first start at point guard, finished with eight points, a game-high 10 rebounds, a game-high four assists and a game-high four steals. Haili Mossing (Evergreen/Metamora, Ohio) had six points and six rebounds; Sybil Roseboro (Elyria/Elyria, Ohio) had five points and three assists; and Olivia Frost (North Baltimore/North Baltimore, Ohio) had four points and two rebounds.
Eight different players had at least two steals for Owens, while eight players had at least one assist. Everyone had at least two rebounds.
Brandy Merritt led Hocking with 14 points and seven rebounds, but finished 5-for-21 from the field, including 3-for-12 from the 3-point line. McCollister added 13 points as Hocking finished 13-for-49 (25.5 percent) from the field and 6-for-29 (20.7 percent) from the 3-point line.
NOTES
The Owens women's basketball program has scored 100 or more points 55 times since the program's modern era began in 1992-93, and 24 of those have came in the past three years. In fact, prior to 2014-15, no team had achieved more than three 100-point games in one season. Then, the 2014-15 team did it five times before last year's finished with nine. On top of that, this year's team has two of the three highest scoring games in program history.
Owens completed the season sweep of Hocking today. They have won both games by a 210-72 margin.
Reese now has 857 career points after her 12-point effort today. In doing so, she passed Stephanie Galant (856, 1998-2000) for ninth place on the career scoring list, and she needs 32 more points to pass Niccole Brown (885, 2003-05) for eight place.
On top of that, Reese now needs 35 more rebounds to break the program's career record currently held by Tammy Murphy (663, 1996-98).
Owens is now 72-1 at home since February of 2012, which also includes 23 straight wins.
Williams eclipsed 100 career assists today. She needs 14 more points to become the 31st player in program history to reach 600 in her career.