By Chris Schmidbauer, Sports Information Director
Some days you are hot and then there are days like freshman Da'Vina Shelton had. The freshman broke the single game scoring record for the women's program by scoring 40 points on the afternoon in the Express's rout of Hocking College, 132-31.
Despite the final score, the game was competitive through the first ten minutes. Owens had a modest 12 point lead at the end of the first period at 22-10. From then on out though, the Express pushed down on the accelerator and outscored Hocking 110-21 over the game's final 30 minutes. The Express closed out the game on 44-0 run, including holding the Hawks scoreless through the entire fourth quarter.
Shelton was the big scorer for the Express. Her stat line would have been good enough to win the game for Owens by herself. She finished 15-20 (75%) from the floor and and unbelievable 10-14 (71.4%) from three for the aforementioned 40 points. Her 40 points broke the single game scoring record that was set previously by Amy Amstutz, when she finished with 36 points in a game against Clark State on February 10, 1999. The Canton native did not impact the game just offensively either. She was second of the team in rebounds with nine and she also had five assists, which led the team.
Essence Cowan had a great day shooting too. She finished with 27 points on 10-19 shooting and was 50% from three for the ball game. She also had three assists and two steals against the Hawks. Cowan's fellow classmate, Kaylah Ivey finished with her seventh double-double and second in as many games. She finished with 19 points on 6-10 shooting and she also had a team high ten rebounds in the contest. Nine of those boards came on the offensive end of the floor.
Dai'Shona Polk finished in double figures too. She had 16 points on 8-10 shooting and had seven rebounds on the day. Brenda Pennington finished with 14 points on 6-10 shooting as well. The Hammong, IN native also had three rebounds in the game. Last but not least, freshman Daichele Hatcher rounded out the scorers in double figures off the bench, finishing with 12 points on 5-9 shooting. She also had two steals.
As a team the Expres shot 63.4% (52-82) from the floor, 50% (19-38) from three, and 90% (9-10) from the free throw line. The Hawks shot just 13.6% (6-44) from the floor for the game and 9.1% from three (2-22).
The 101 point margin of victory breaks another record for the program as well. It is the biggest margin of win victory in the program's history. The previous high was 99 points, which came a year ago against Oakland Community College back on December 21, 2016. It is also the second most amount of points scored in a game as well for the Express. The program's high is 134 which came in the same game against Oakland C.C. a year ago.
The Express move to 20-4 overall for the season with their record breaking win and they are tied for first in the OCCAC with Sinclair at 10-1. Hocking falls to 0-20 overall and 0-16 in the conference. The Express are currently on a seven game winning streak, which is the second longest of the season.
Owens will be in action again on Valentine's Day, Wednesday February 14 when they welcome in Edison. The Chargers are 20-8 overall and 10-6 in the OCCAC. Tip off is scheduled for 5:30 PM from the SHAC.