A tough second half became a war of attrition Saturday for Allen Community College’s basketball team.
The Red Devils, already down four players due to injury, ended Saturday’s showdown with Kansas City Kansas minus three starters due to fouls.
Kansas City took full advantage, pulling away from what had been a tight game to win, 92-76.
The loss drops Allen to 6-6 in Jayhawk Conference play headed into the back stretch of the regular season.
Allen hosted Highland Monday night in a makeup game from last week — results were unavailable by press time — before wrapping up the regular season Wednesday at Labette.
Saturday’s matchup had a little bit of everything, at least from an officiating standpoint.
The officials whistled both teams for a combined 53 personal fouls and by the time the final horn sounded, Allen’s top two scorers, Tyler Pinder and Malachi Schilreff were on the bench, as was starter Dirk Johnson, who had led ACC with 16 points on Saturday on 8 of 11 shooting.
But even after a tough first half, in which Allen shot 28% from the field, the Red Devils were able to stay afloat, courtesy of some stout defense themselves.
The teams entered the locker room at 40-40.
Johnson’s bucket with about 17 minutes left in the game pushed the Red Devils ahead 49-46 before the tone shifted in a hurry.
Kansas City’s BJ Stewart was able to get to the line frequently in the second half, triggering a 13-2 Blue Devil run in the process.
Allen’s Javontae Costner hit a 3-pointer with 13 minutes remaining to pull ACC to within 61-58, but KCK responded with a 12-6 run to take control.
In between there were plenty of game stoppages — four times officials reviewed fouls, causing extended stoppages of play — and a bizarre sequence late in the game in which the Red Devil bench was assessed a technical foul after a fan was ejected from the game and tossed a drink onto the floor as he exited.
The officials, who called seven technical fouls in the contest, were poised to assess the technical against Red Devil head coach Patrick Nee, and eject him from the game, before reversing course, instead assessing it to ACC’s bench.
Johnson wound up with six rebounds to go with his 16 points. Pinder scored 12 with four assists. Mike Smith had eight points, eight rebounds and four assists. Costner also scored 12 with three assists. Schilreff scored eight.
Stewart led KCK with 23.
KCK (40-52—92)
FG/3pt FT F TP
Randle 1/2 2 0 10
Martinez 2 3 2 7
Williford 1/1 1 3 6
Ross 5 4 3 14
Washington 1 1 1 3
Long 1 0 1 2
Jones-Winslow 3 4 2 10
Tiemeyer 1/1 4 3 9
McHenry 0 0 4 0
Agama 1 0 2 2
Stewart 5/2 7 3 23
Lewis 0/1 3 0 6
Totals 21/8 29 27 92
Allen (40-36—76)
Costner 1/2 4 1 12
Ray-Young 0/1 0 2 3
Schilreff 3 2 5 8
Hill 2 0 3 4
Smith 4 8 3 16
Pinder 1/1 7 4 12
Langford 0/1 0 2 3
Scott 1 0 0 2
Johnson 8 0 5 16Totals 20/5 21 26 76
