Anwar Perry could not believe what he was watching. Allen County Community College’s Red Devil men were on the verge — 2.4 seconds — from winning in overtime Monday night.
But the ACCC men’s head coach watched as his players left Penn Valley Community College’s post player unguarded on the blocks with the basketball.
“I don’t know what we were thinking. Both of our guys with the guard and their post player turns around. He put up a shot from the block and it was in then out,” Perry said of the Red Devils’ 85-84 victory.
“The first half was mostly back and forth until Penn Valley had a run with some easy looks to build the five-point lead.”
Penn Valley was up 38-33 at the break. Perry said the Red Devils broke out a zone defense in the second half which “bothered them and we built momentum from our defense.” Once Penn Valley figured out the zone, Perry said Allen County switched to a man-to-man.
Allen County, which outscored Penn Valley 46-41 in the second half, had a three-point lead with under a minute left in regulation. Perry said Penn Valley hit a “crazy three-pointer” to tie it.
The Red Devils ran the clock down to seven seconds on the clock, took a timeout and set up a play. “But we didn’t run the play and the three-pointer we put up didn’t go in so we went to overtime,” Perry said.
Canon Fields had 13 points before leaving the game after being elbowed in the face in regulation. Fields was back on the court in the extra period and scored all six of Allen County’s points — a layup and four free throws.
Fields hit two charities to give ACCC the 85-84 lead. He finished with 19 points and five assists.
Terrell Shears had a double-double with 22 points and 13 rebounds. Tyrone Jones scored 16 points. Allen County shot 48.5 percent, 34 of 70, from the field and hit 14 of 22 free throw attempts.
Jeff Romeus, Drelan Tripplett and Thomas Daniel each had seven points. Mychael Anderson added five and Rickey Hollis had two points.
Shears also had 17 points and 10 rebounds in Saturday’s 73-70 loss to Kansas State-Salina. Jones had 18 points and Romeus had 13 points.
Allen County is 6-6 overall going into Christmas break.
