By Chris Schmidbauer, Sports Information Director

Toledo, OH -- Leading by just a point with 5:03 to play in the game, the Owens Men's Basketball team closed the game on a 23-7 run to to take down Mercyhurst 100-83. 

The Express would trail 12-8 at the 15:04 mark of the first half, before the team would surge ahead of the Saints courtesy of a 9-0. Owens would lead 17-12 just a matter of minutes later. The Express would push the lead to eight points after a Ricky Williams three pointer. 

The two teams would trade points much of the remainder of the first half. The Saints would retake the lead at the 6:06 mark of the first half, before Owens would go another run before the break. The Express would go on an 8-0 run, capped off by three straight free throws courtesy of Alontay Gould. Owens would not relinquish the lead the remainder of the half, leading 46-40 heading into the break. 

The second half would be another tug of war for most of the half. Mercyhurst would outscore the Express 11-3 to take a two point lead with 16:42 to go in the game. Owens would retake the lead at the 15:24 mark after a Gould layup made the score 56-54. The Saints would come back to take the lead again, and they would push that lead as high as seven after a layup by Jonahtan Sula made the score 66-59 with 12:50 left in the game. 

Owens would begin to chip away at the deficit, and they pulled back in front at 67-66 with 9:55 to play after a pair of Jamal Whiteside free throws. The two teams would trade buckets for next few minutes with the teams trading the lead twice more. 

The Express led 77-76 with a little over five minutes to play, before the went on their late game run. A tip in by Jacob Cousino, followed by three straight buckets from Jamal Whiteside, put Owens up 86-76 with 3:12 to play. Cousino would have a dramatic dunk, just seconds later, to push the Express advantage to 12 points. A quick 5-0 run would pull Mercyhurst back to within seven, but four straight threes, two of which came from Alontay Gould, sealed the deal for the Express for their 17 point win. 

Alontay Gould was sensational from the floor, scoring 34 points on 11-20 shooting and a scorching 9-12 from three. Gould also had five assists and four rebounds in the contest.

Jamal Whiteside had 18 points of the bench, shooting 5-8 from the floor and 6-6 from the free throw line. Jacob Cousino scored a career high 14 points, and he finished with a double-double with 16 rebounds as well. 

Jaelin Ferrell added 11 points in the game and five assists, as well. Reggie Robinson scored nine points and tallied five boards and four assists. 

As a team, the Express shot 54.1% for the game and 63.6% from beyond the arc. The Saints shot 45.7% from the field. They were led in scoring by Samad Bailey with 23 points and Tyler Williams with 21 points.

Owens's record improves now to 5-7 overall on the season. 

The Express will be in action next on the road on December 16th when the take on Glen Oaks. That will represent the first in a three games in three days stretch for the men. They will play Muskegon the following night at the SHAC at 7:30 PM. They will follow that up with a game against Akron-Wayne on December 18.