The Allen Community College men’s basketball team breezed to the Region VI semifinals by rolling over Hesston, 87-50, at home Monday night.
The Red Devils (22-9) limited Hesston to 19.4% from the floor while shooting 56% on the offensive end and got 13 different scorers involved, including six Devils in double figure.
“They are one of the more scary offenses in the conference and they put up 60 points in the second half of games alone,” said Allen head coach Andy Shaw. “I give our guys credit. They were in tune to the game plan, they held them to just 50 points and we dominated the glass.”
Allen jumped to an early 10-3 lead. Nick Whittick and Tanner Meyer each knocked down three’s before Chris Dixon drove hard to the basket for a layup.
Meyer hit another three, this time from the corner, to extend the lead to 17-7 almost midway through the first half. Eimon Galloway stepped up and hit a three to push the advantage to 24-9.
Six different Red Devils found their stroke from three-point distance including Donovan Seamster who drained three straight three-pointers on back-to-back-to-back possessions for a 38-15 advantage near the end of the half.
Allen’s Max Cheap then stepped up and hit a couple of three-pointers with two minutes left in the first for a 44-21 lead.
“We shot the ball much better which is great to see after struggling there the last few games,” said Shaw. “We had wide open shots in those games and couldn’t get anything to go and tonight we went 11-of-29 from three. It was good to get our footing back.”
The Red Devils headed to halftime leading Hesston, 48-24.
Red Devil Ahmed Mahgoub led a 66-rebound effort on the board by grabbing a team-high nine. Eimon Galloway and Dixon also went for eight rebounds apiece. Allen pulled in 25 offensive rebounds as well.
Hesston shot the ball at a 13.9% clip from in the second half, going five-of-36.
It was indicative of an Allen defense which played tough pressure defense with a hand in the Larks’ faces all night.
“David Duncan is one of the quickest guards in the league. He’s third or fourth in scoring in the league and he gives everybody problems like that,” Shaw said. “We’ve seen a little bit of everything this year, nothing surprises us and now we’re excited for another playoff game.”
Allen pulled away by over 30 points near the end of the game behind Seamster hitting four-of-nine from the field, Cheap hitting four-of-seven and Mahgoub knocking down four-of-seven of his shots for the 37-point drubbing.
Meyer led the Red Devils with 13 points, followed by Seamster and Mahgoub’s 11 points apiece and Dixon, Galloway and Cheap’s 10. Cheap knocked down two-of-four three’s and Seamster hit three-of-eight from distance.
