2nd-seeded Owens ready to make tournament run

3/10/2005

The Owens Community College men's basketball team begins its postseason run toward a third national title as the Express competes in the NJCAA Region XII (District 7) tournament this weekend.

The single-elimination tour-

nament will be held tomorrow through Sunday at Edison State in Piqua, Ohio.

The Express (25-5) will battle Clark State at 1 p.m. tomorrow. If Owens should advance, it would play the Columbus State/Cincinnati State winner at 1 p.m. on Saturday. The championship will be at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Other teams participating in the tournament include Lakeland, Cuyahoga, Sinclair, Edison State and Southern State.

Owens has won seven Great Lakes Region XII championships to qualify for the national tournament. It also captured NJCAA Division II national championships in 1992 and 1993 and finished as the national runner-up in 1994.

Owens completed its Ohio Community College Athletic Association regular season in second place with an 11-3 record.

The Express' Larry Logan was named All-OCCAC first team. Cal Davis and Willie Tisdale made honorable mention.

Logan leads the team in scoring (14.5) and rebounding (11.3). Other top scorers include Jerimy Robinson (11.1), Davis (10.0), Tisdale (9.1) and Sean Washington (9.1).

"Larry has had a terrific sophomore season and is being recruited by several four-year universities. He'll be prepared for the next level," Owens coach Jim Welling said.

"This has been a great group of sophomores, an unselfish group, and the chemistry is as good as anyone in the region."

The Express is the No. 2 seed in the region tournament behind Cuyahoga CC, the OCCAC champion.

"Even though we're the No. 2 seed we like the position we're in," Welling said."Our guys have been very focused this week about cleaning up fundamentals.

"One big factor for us is understanding we can't turn the ball over more than 15 times and we need better rebounding to control both ends."