The theme for Friday's City League basketball clash between Rogers and visiting Start was established in the early going.
Start fell behind 9-0 over the first five minutes, then attempted to play catch-up all game long in a 65-57 loss to Rogers, which held onto its first-place spot in the CL standings with the win.
"We've got to push the ball up the floor," Rogers coach Earl Morris said of his team's ability to beat Start in transition throughout the game. "Every time they made a run, while they were celebrating, we were scoring at the other end."
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The Rams (10-3, 7-1) got a game-high 21 points from junior guard Clemmye Owens, who fired in 14 of those during Rogers' pivotal 24-14 third quarter.
"When Owens gets on a roll he's hard to deal with," Morris said. "He scores in spurts. When he's rolling well we've got to go to him."
Forwards Darrin Tucker and Talon Floyd provided the inside game for the Rams with 10 points apiece, while guard Tony Kynard supplied eight points and 10 assists in the victory.
"We had to pick it up," Owens said of the decisive third quarter. "We only had 25 points at the half. That's not our game.
"We're a fast-paced team and that's not enough points for us. We knew we had to turn it up. We knew that wouldn't be able to stop us when we ran, and we were ready for their runs."
Start (9-5, 4-4) was led by guards Dion Ivery and DeMond Crisp, who scored 18 points each, and fellow backcourt player Javon Ruffin, who had four of the Spartans' nine 3-pointers in the game to finish with 13 points.
Neither team looked particularly sharp at the outset, as Rogers missed five of its first six shots and Start opened 0-for-7 from the field.
But, when Rogers' DeVonte Pratt netted a 3-pointer five minutes into the game, the Rams were up 9-0.
Ruffin finally broke the ice for Start, hitting a 3-pointer with 2:23 left in the first quarter, which ended with Rogers ahead 15-7.
The Spartans eventually gained some rhythm and some ground, using a 12-4 run late in the second quarter to pull even at 23-23 on Ivery's driving layup 1:13 before halftime.
Rogers, which never trailed in the game, began the third quarter with its own 12-4 surge, taking a 37-27 edge on Kynard's 15-foot jumper midway in the quarter.
When Floyd cashed in on a transition bucket with 1:02 left in the third, the Rams owned their largest lead to that point at 46-32. Start would hit four 3-pointers in the final quarter in a comeback bid, but could not get closer than five points (62-57) down the stretch.
"It was catch-up all night," Start coach Gil Guerrero said. "They were running and we weren't getting back. We had guys still celebrating when we scored and, bam, they're going the other way.
"We preached all week about getting back on defense and our guys didn't exactly know what getting back was tonight. I guess that's my fault. We gave up a lot of easy buckets. They just outran us basically."
Rogers shot 50 percent (29-of-58) from the field, was 4-of-11 from the line, and had 11 turnovers in the game.
"We've still got a couple more to go," Morris said of the CL standings heading into the league's Feb. 17-24 playoffs. "We need to win one more to get one of the top two seeds, so we need to take it one at a time.
"We know we're a target [in City League], and we've got to play hard every night," Owens said. "People are coming at us. We have to defend our No. 1 spot."
Start was 22-of-52 (42 percent) from the field, 4-of-11 at the line, edged the Rams 36-34 in rebounding, and committed 19 turnovers.
Contact Steve Junga at: sjunga@theblade.com 419-724-6461, or on Twitter @JungaBlade.
First Published February 4, 2012, 4:19 a.m.
