By Nicholas Huenefeld/Owens Sports Information
Jackson, Mich.---John Murry (North Central/Indianapolis, Ind.) scored a career-high 34 points to lead the No. 16 Owens Community College men's basketball team to a 102-86 win over Jackson College tonight.
With the win, Owens avenged an 80-75 loss to Jackson College on Dec. 6.
Murry was the primary reason that happened. The sophomore guard, who only had eight points in the season's first meeting between the two teams, destroyed Jackson from 3-point range from start to finish. Early on, after Jackson scored the game's first basket, he brought the ball up court and hit nothing but net from the left wing to give Owens a 3-2 lead.
Later, after an 8-0 run gave Jackson a 13-8 lead with 15:48 left, Murry hit back-to-back-to-back 3-pointers to give Owens a 17-13 lead with 13:11 left. They never trailed again.
Jackson pulled within one, but Owens went on a 14-2 run to open up a 12 point lead with just under nine minutes left in the half. Jackson responded and trimmed the deficit to as few as six, but Owens closed the half on a 6-0 run to lead by 14.
Murry hit another 3-pointer early in the second half, but Jackson scored 12 points over the first two minutes and only trailed by five. Enter Edmond Early Jr. (Thurgood Marshall/Dayton, Ohio). The sophomore converted a 3-point play, stole the ball on the ensuing Jackson possession and converted a fast break lay-up to push the lead back up to 10.
In fact, Early Jr. started an 11-0 run with his 3-point play and fast break lay-up and Owens led 58-42 with 16:20 left. Down the stretch, Jackson never trailed by fewer than 10, while Owens pushed its lead to as many as 18 in the final minute.
While racking up his career-high point total, Murry tied the single game program record for 3-point field goal percentage (7-for-7, 100 percent) en route to a 12-for-13 finish from the field overall. He came one 3-point field goal made short of tying Chris Trobaugh's single game record for most in a game, while also adding a team-high eight rebounds, three assists and one steal.
Early Jr. was Robin to Murry's Batman in today's game, especially in the second half. He totaled 19 points, five assists, three rebounds and two steals. Eleven of his points came in the second half, while Murry tallied 18 of his 34 in the final 20 minutes.
Also notching double figures for Owens were: Austin Somerfield (Greenville/Greenville, Mich.) with 12, Kenny Jones (Clay/South Bend, Ind.) with 10 and CJ Bussey (Central Catholic/Toledo, Ohio) with 10. Shaakir Lindsey (Teaneck/Teaneck, N.J.) had a team-high six assists, and Somerfield had a team-high two blocks. Darren Groves (Thurgood Marshall/Dayton, Ohio) had five assists in 13 minutes off the bench.
Lindsey had a season-low three points, while Murry bumped his team-high scoring average up to 19.1 per game. In his past three games, he has totals of 24, 29 and now 34 points. That has all come after only his second single digit scoring output of the season.
Meanwhile, Jackson was led by Tre'Vion Crews, who also torched the Owens defense in the first meeting this season between the two teams. Today, he finished with 22 points, seven rebounds, seven assists and three steals. Alex Potter (18 points), Eldridge Mason (18 points, 12 rebounds, six steals, three assists) and Matt Bullinger (12 points) helped Crews.
Owens, which improved to 11-3 this year, scored at least 100 points for the second straight game and sixth time overall this year. They also have two 99 point games and are averaging 95.3 points per contest.
Today's game marked a season-high in team field goal percentage (39-for-62, 63.9 percent) and team 3-point field goal percentage (12-for-18, 66.7 percent) for Owens. In fact, they are now 22-for-36 (61.1 percent) from 3-point range over the past two games.
Additionally, Owens was only one rebound over its season team low in rebounds as they finished with 31.
Jackson fell to 6-6 this year with the loss.
Owens will be back in action on Saturday with a 3 p.m. road tilt at Schoolcraft College in Livonia, Mich. The matchup should be a good one as Owens defeated the Ocelots 99-92 in a high scoring game on Nov. 8.