The following sports editorial was written by Amy Brown, assistant to the athletic director, and submitted by Jeff Price, athletic director.
The Sinclair women’s basketball team (11-10, 3-1) hosted Lakeland (3-16, 0-4) on Saturday, Jan. 25. Sinclair’s pressure proved to be too much for Lakeland and they beat the Lakers 71 – 59.
Sinclair struck first as Ashley Morrow hit a shot to give Sinclair a 2 – 0 lead. Lakeland then took control, leading 6 – 4 with less than 16 minutes. O’Sha Owens gave Sinclair the jump-start they needed to regain the lead when she hit a jumper to put Sinclair up 7 – 6 and then hit a three to give Sinclair the 11 – 8 advantage with 14 minutes and 30 seconds left to play.
Sakia Prude snatched the steal, followed by the put pack rebound to tie the game 21 – 21 with less than six minutes to play. Jenae Curtiss got the layup and Sinclair regained the lead 23 – 21. Lakeland and Sinclair exchanged one-point leads back and forth for the rest of the half with 13 lead changes.
It was a very close first half, which led to a tie ball game going into halftime 30 – 30. O’Sha Owens led Sinclair with 10 points and three rebounds in the first half.
Jenae Curtiss hit a jumper to start off the second half 32 -30. Ashley Morrow got a lay-up after a Sinclair steal and put Sinclair up 40 – 32. Lakeland’s Emily Elkins hit a three, cutting their deficit to 42 – 35. O’Sha Owens hit a three to give Sinclair a 10 point lead over Lakeland with 11 minutes remaining.
After gaining a 10-point lead Sinclair began to pull away and capitalized on Lakeland’s 28 turnovers. Breanna Ball was fouled with seven minutes, 3 seconds to play, went 2 – 2 from the free throw line and gave Sinclair the lead 58 – 43. Sinclair scored 24 points off of Lakeland turnovers.
Sinclair proved to be too much for Lakeland and beat them for the second time this season. Sinclair shot 51.5 percent in the second half and shot 75 percent from the free throw line.
Sinclair was led by O’Sha Owens (5-4/FR – Elida H.S., Elida, OH) who tallied 21 points, brought down six rebounds and got four steals. Other leading scorers included Jenae Curtiss (5-9/FR – Thurgood Marshall H.S., Dayton, OH) who recorded 12 points. Breanna Ball (5-6/FR – Belmont H.S., Dayton, OH) tallied 11 points, grabbed six rebounds, dished out four assists, and had three steals. Ashley Morrow (5-6/FR – Springboro H.S., Springboro, OH) added 10 points, three steals and led the team with five assists. Darnesha Wesley (5-7/FR – Meadowdale H.S., Dayton, OH) was a co-leader on the team for rebounds with seven, and also recorded six points. Sakia Prude (5-3/FR – Thurgood Marshall H.S., Dayton, OH) had a career-high seven rebounds and eight points.
Sinclair will be on the road for the next three games and then will finish the season off at home with five home battles in a row. The next home game will be on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2014 when they face Edison at 5:30 p.m. The men’s game will follow at 7:30 p.m. All home games are held at Sinclair Community College in the gymnasium in Building 8.