Allen men’s basketball played its fourth game in a week on Tuesday against Kansas Wesleyan’s junior varsity squad. The Red Devils won 94-73.
Allen didn’t start well, struggling to get out of the gates. Allen’s slow start meant Kansas Wesleyan was able to jump out to an 8-3 lead early. Allen didn’t have the lead until 12:20 to go in the first half when the Red Devils went up 18-16.
Once Allen took the lead, they never looked back and led 50-34 at the half. Kansas Wesleyan tried to come back, closing the gap to eight points in the second half. But Allen’s deep bench was too much for Kansas Wesleyan. Allen just had too many bodies to put in the game.
“We got everybody some playing time which was our intention,” said Allen Community College head coach Andy Shaw. Allen played 17 players compared to Kansas Wesleyan’s 11.
Shaw was back in action after missing Saturday’s game when he greeted the birth of his second child.
“It was good to be back,” Shaw said. “It’s a strange feeling to not be with your team. The good thing was that after the game against Cowley Community College Friday night I was able to get to the hospital in time. The next day watching us play online was weird but the guys grabbed a lead and kept their foot down. It was good to be able to relax and not worry too much.”
Allen took 81 shots in the game, a staggering number even for an up-tempo team. Allen shot 42% and made 34 of those shots, slightly better than Kansas Wesleyan’s 41.9% on 62 shots.
“There were a lot of possessions,” Shaw said. “We wanted to speed the game up. We thought it would help us. We were able to get 26 offensive rebounds. That’s a lot. That’s probably what won us the game, how we dominated the glass.”
Ed Wright scored 20 points and had six assists. Zabriel Boozer scored 10 points and had a rebound. Chris Dixon scored 17 points and had five rebounds.
Allen is 3-1 on the season and will be on the road for two weeks. Allen plays Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa on Friday and Northern Oklahoma College-Enid on Saturday.
