Both Allen Community College men’s and women’s teams put forth winning first-half efforts versus Cowley County on Saturday. Unfortunately, neither could finish as the men fell 63-54 and the women lost 75-51.
The men fell to 4-7 and 2-5 on the year after winning two in a row going into Saturday while the Lady Devils are 3-8 and 1-6 in conference play and have lost four in a row and eight of their last nine.
The Allen County women felt good about themselves after being tied 34-all at half against the undefeated Lady Tigers. Despite having eight more turnovers in the first half, the Lady Devils held tight and even out-rebounded Cowley by four.
“We just had a different bounce today in the first half,” head coach Todd Buchanan said. “And really, through 75 or 80 percent of the game, I felt like we had a different rhythm and a different bounce about us. I felt our communication was as good as it’s been. Our rotations were solid and we rebounded the ball. That was probably the most significant thing through the first half.”
It didn’t take long for that to fall apart in the second half as Cowley came out strong with a press and crippled the Lady Devil offense.
Allen County allowed the Lady Tigers to more than double their steal total in the second half.
“Not to take anything away from them but I felt like it was us,” Buchanan said. “I don’t feel like it was anything they did. They kept running the same stuff. We didn’t execute everything we prepared for. We got into our press-break offense and we didn’t read it and we lost our poise. We kind of panicked. I couldn’t get a timeout quickly enough to stop the bleeding two different times.”
After holding Cowley to just 34 points in the first half, the Lady Tigers scored 41 and allowed the Lady Devils just 17 second-half points.
Sophomore Tamera Shaver was the lone Lady Devil to reach double-figures on the night with 10.
“We just have to stay true to who we are,” Buchanan said. “We need to bend but not break mentally and physically. I do know that what we’re doing is the right thing, we just need to do it better.”
ALLEN COUNTY 51, COWLEY COUNTY 75
Individual Scoring
Allen County (75)- Shaver 10, Wilson 9, Pittman 8, Summons 7, Verge 5, Seals 5, Patterson 3, Andrews 2, Kincade 2.
3-pointers- Allen County 2 (Shaver 2).
For the men, the second half decline was more gradual.
Sophomore Tyler Williams seemed well on his way to continuing his streak of scoring 20 or more points after a 13 point first half but Cowley had other plans and keyed in on Williams to start the second half.
They held him scoreless for the remainder of the game and head coach Andy Shaw was desperate to find someone else to step up as the Red Devils saw their five-point first half lead slowly get wiped away.
“It’s a total team effort and tonight we just didn’t have enough guys step up,” Shaw said. “We shot the ball well early as a team but we struggled to score in the second half. Especially when it counted, we didn’t I give Cowley credit. They came at us with a zone and early we were able to attack it and then they made an adjustment and we couldn’t figure it out.”
With 12:33 left to play in the half, the Red Devils led by two. Miscommunication on a substitution led to a six-men on the court technical, allowing Cowley to tied it up for the first time since early in the first half. The Red Devils quickly saw their lead vanish into a six-point deficit and just were not able to come back.
“It was just non-communication,” Shaw said. “We’ve been begging our guys to talk from day one and sometimes they don’t do it on defense and apparently not on substitutions either. I’ll take the blame for that but we have to communicate.”
Despite not scoring in the second half, Williams still led all scorers with 13 while Darius Love scored 10 points.
ALLEN COUNTY 54, COWLEY COUNTY 63
Individual Scoring
Allen County (54)- Williams 13, Love 10, Coppage 6, Clifton 6, C. Winston 5, Jones 5, Townsend 5, Patterson 2, A. Winston 2.
3-pointers- Allen County 9 (Williams 3, Coppage 2, Love, Jones, Townsend).
ACC men and women fade in second half versus Cowley Co.
