Blue Dragons defeat ACC men

Visiting Hutchinson Community College demonstrated for all to see Tuesday why two of its players were among the most heavily recruited in all of junior college basketball.
Host Allen Community College, meanwhile, showed that while improved, work remains before the Red Devils are to reach the upper echelon of the Jayhawk Conference.
In their final pre-Thanksgiving contest of the season, Hutchinson exploded out of the gate to lead Allen, 30-9, midway through the first half Tuesday evening.
The Red Devils responded, pulling to within five early in the second period.
But Hutch, the fourth-ranked NJCAA Division I school in the country, answered every challenge, then pulled away down the stretch to win, 90-69.
The loss drops the Red Devils to 6-4 on the season.
“We just didn’t have it,” Allen head coach Andy Shaw said. “When you shoot 23 of 73, you’re not going to beat many teams.”
The Blue Dragon defenders had something to do with that, repelling several ACC attacks to the basket, particularly in the first half.
Hutchinson (8-2) held Allen without a field goal for more than seven minutes as part of a 17-2 run to take control.
The Blue Dragons’ Coreontae DeBerry ended two straight possessions with dunks to cap the run at the 9:01 mark of the half.
“Their size really hurt us in the first half,” Shaw said.
Allen’s response was keyed by its defense.
“We finally started getting some stops,” Shaw said. “The guys started playing unselfishly. We just started playing harder.”
Josh Sweet — the only Red Devil who didn’t score in Allen’s 123-point explosion Friday evening in a win over Tabor — scored eight points in a 3-minute span as Allen closed the half on a 21-7 run.
Ben Uno scored five straight points with a trey and a layup with 6:35 left before Courtney Stockard scored on a nice up-and-under play, followed by a 3-pointer less than a minute later. Sweet’s free throws cut the Red Devil deficit to 37-30 at halftime.
Sweet scored early in the second half. DeShawn Watson’s putback with 18 minutes remaining pulled ACC to within 39-34.
It was as close as the Red Devils could get.
Hutchinson scored six straight points to restore its double-digit lead.
Sweet’s 3-pointer stemmed the tide briefly before Hutchinson responded with a 12-2 run to lead 57-39 by the 12-minute mark.
That’s when Kadeem Allen took over. Hutchinson’s sophomore guard — who has signed to play with the Arizona Wildcats next season — scored 21 points over the final 12 minutes, doing most of his damage from the free throw line. He hit 21 of 24 free throws to finish with 33 points.
Still, the Red Devils did not go down without a fight.
Stockard drained a 3-pointer with 3:07 left in the contest before going 1 of 2 from the line to cut the deficit to 10, 74-64.
But the Red Devils came up empty on their next four possessions as the Blue Dragons pulled away.
Allen capped his night with six straight free throws in a single possession — the first two after he was fouled, then four more on a pair of technicals assessed to Allen’s Alex Miller as he fouled out of the game.
Stockard led the Red Devils with 17 points and four assists, while Uno followed with 16 points. Sweet scored 15 points. Raheem Tyner pulled in 15 rebounds. After draining 7 of 10 3-pointers three nights earlier against Tabor, Miller hit only 1 of 10 from downtown against Hutch. He ended the night with five points.
Allen wound up with 33 points, nine assists and seven rebounds to lead Hutchinson. DeBerry — who will take his talents to the University of Cincinnati next season — followed with 21 points and eight rebounds. Tafari Whittingham scored 15.
The Blue Dragons converted 35 of 46 free throws; Allen went 12 of 18.
“We just didn’t have anybody to match up with them physically,” Shaw said. “We’ve got to play better.”
Allen gets a slight break for Thanksgiving before returning to practice over the weekend. The Red Devils host Fort Scott in a doubleheader next Tuesday.
“We’ll give the guys a couple days off before we get back at it,” Shaw said. “We have a lot of work to do in order to get better.”
Hutchinson (37-53—90)
Allen (30-39—69)
Hutchinson (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Winter 0-2-5-2, Allen 6-21-0-33, Watson 0-0-2-0, Budke 1/1-2-1-7, Whittingham 6-3-2-15, Sands 3-0-3-6, DeBerry 8-5-3-21, Jackson 2-2-4-6. TOTALS: 26/1-35-20-90.
Allen (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Uno 4/2-2-2-16, Fountain 1/1-0-4-5, Sluder 0-1-3-1, Stockard 2/4-1-4-17, Sweet 2/3-2-1-15, Keiswetter 0-0-2-0, Miller 0/1-2-5-5, Jones 1-1-1-3, Watson 1-0-0-2, Tyner 1-3-3-5. TOTALS: 12/11-12-25-69.