A spirited back-and-forth affair took a turn Wednesday late in the first half for Allen Community College.
The Red Devils, riding high after a big win over rival Neosho County on Saturday, were knotted at 26-26 with first-place Johnson County late in the first half.
But the Red Devil offense went cold from there.
The Cavaliers ended the first half on a 14-6 run to take a 38-30 lead into intermission.
That was prelude to a prolonged scoring drought in which Allen scored only one field goal over the first 10 minutes of the second half.
Johnson County led by as many as 22 down the stretch in a 72-60 victory.
The loss drops Allen to 2-2 in Jayhawk Conference play, 7-10 overall.
The Cavaliers extended their lead to 46-31 early in the second half before Allen’s Tyler Pinder converted a rare four-point play to slice the lead to 11.
Problem was, Allen didn’t score again from the field until Jackson Langford drilled a 3-pointer at the 10-minute mark.
By then, Johnson County had extended its lead to 58-36.
The Red Devils mounted a charge late in the contest. Dirk Johnson scored on a putback, Malachi Schilreff followed with a dunk and Johnson drained two free throws to cut ACC’s deficit to 64-54 with just under two minutes remaining.
But Johnson County’s Steven Samuels scored on a drive on the next possession before teammate Gavin Harvey scored on back-to-back layups to extend the lead to 68-54.
Mike Smith led the way for Allen with 15 points and nine rebounds. Schilreff scored 13 points with nine boards and three assists. Pinder scored 13 as well.
Brandon Mann scored 17, Traeger Rader 16, Harvey 12 and Samuels 11 for Johnson County.
The Red Devils are back in action Saturday at Highland.
