News Releases

Owens Women’s Basketball Heads Back to National Tournament

A’Leah Hodges and the Owens Express women’s basketball team will open play in the NJCAA National Tournament
at 5 p.m. Wednesday.

For the fourth time in the last five years, the Owens Community College women’s basketball team is heading back to the NJCAA Division III national tournament. The Express will open the tournament on Wednesday, March 11 in Brownwood, Texas.

This year, the Express won the Mid-Atlantic District and Region XII championships in dominating fashion, beating Lorain County Community College in both matchups by a combined score of 227-106.

Despite those two wins, Owens dropped from No. 6 in the final rankings to the seventh seed in the tournament. According to coach Stephen Perry, his team is using that slight as fuel heading into the tournament.

“We’re definitely excited about getting an automatic bid to the national tournament, but to be honest, we’re really not satisfied with how we were seeded,” Perry said. “We are definitely using this as motivation.

“Our team feels like we were slighted a little bit and it has really energized our group. We say that pressure is a privilege, so we carry that around with us. Or team isn’t fazed by it. We have high expectations and standards and our team strives to meet those every day.”

Owens has won one national title in women’s basketball, beating Hostos, New York, for the Division III championship in 2022. Cierra Harris was the tournament MVP and Perry earned Coach of the Tournament honors.

The Express enter the NJCAA tournament as the No. 7 seed with a 21-8 record.

Overall, the Express have appeared in 13 Division II or III national tournaments, including this season. They’ve gone 20-17 in their previous 12 appearances, finishing as a national semifinalist four times. Owens moved to Division III in the 2018-19 season after making eight Division II national tournament fields.

The Express (21-8) face 10^th-seeded Jefferson Community College, New York (21-6) at 5 p.m. ET Wednesday in the tournament’s second game. The Cannoneers are making their third straight national tournament appearance after finishing as runners up in last year’s tournament.

Brooke Wiley leads a balanced Jefferson attack that has four players averaging in double figure points with 13.1 points per game. Abigail Bombard (12.1 points, 4.2 assists and 2.9 steals per game), Madelyn Ferris (11.2 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.6 steals) and Keera Lalonde (10.9) also average double figures.

The winner of Wednesday’s game will advance to face No. 2 Anoka-Ramsey, Minnesota, in Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Rams finished 22-5 this season and have appeared in four straight national tournaments, finishing third last year. They’ve won seven national titles, most recently in 2011.

The national semifinals are set for Friday and the championship game is at 2 p.m. Saturday.

“We’re treating this as a business as usual,” Perry said. “We know we have to win four games in four days to win the national championship. Our schedule has prepared us for everything we will see down in Texas. We’re used to playing a lot of games in a row, we scheduled our regular season that way.

“We’ve used this week of practice to really tighten things up and focus on little details. I’m excited to watch our team compete next week.”

The Express are one of the most potent offenses in the field. Their 82.9 points per game ranks second nationally, while their .405 field goal percentage and .323 3-point percentage are both top 10.

Da’Cariya Lanier (Port Clinton/Port Clinton H.S.) leads Owens with 19.2 points per game while making 90-of-201 3-pointers (44.8 percent) and 3.4 steals. Liv Mullins (Akron/Firestone H.S.) is putting up a double-double, averaging 15.7 points and 11.4 rebounds with 2.2 steals.

Emily Baer (Bowling Green/Toledo Central Catholic H.S.) averages 15.3 points with 52 made 3-pointers along with 3.3 assists and 3.3 steals. Sakiya Turner (Windsor, Ont./Toledo Bowhser H.S.) is adding 10.8 points and 5.7 boards per game, and A’Leah Hodges (Toledo/Holland Springfield H.S.) is putting up 10.0 points with 38 3s, 4.6 assists and 2.3 steals.

For more information on the Express women’s basketball team, please visit owensexpress.com.