Lady Red Devils lose third straight

At this point last year, the Lady Red Devils were 1-8 overall with a whole lot of losing still remaining in front of them.
Allen would finish 5-26.
So with four wins in nine tries so far this season, coach Todd Buchanan’s squad already looks leaps and bounds above its 2014 counterpart.
But when Buchanan arrived at Allen, his goal wasn’t to simply make the Lady Red Devils better but instead make them the best.
Right now, Allen is far from the best.
“I’m almost to the point where I’m beyond fed up with watching us continue to fight and coach and it’s not sinking in,” Buchanan said after Allen’s 84-77 loss to Northern Oklahoma College-Tonkawa on Saturday.
“And I’m not good with that.”
The Lady Red Devils were within eight of the Mavericks by the end of the first half and within seven midway in the second half.
But Allen couldn’t muster up enough offense or hold steady enough on defense to complete a comeback on its home floor. So Buchanan and company lost their third straight game  and their fifth in the last seven matchups.
Ashley Washington finished with a team-high 26 points.
Damonica Franklin recorded the most rebounds for Allen with seven on the night.
The Lady Red Devils shot 37.1 percent as a team against the Mavericks, and they finished shooting 35.7 percent from beyond the three-point arc.
And although Buchanan said his squad reached his goal of getting to the line 25 or more times, Allen was not able to knock down a decent percentage to keep close with Tonkawa. The Lady Red Devils finished the night shooting 15-of-29 from the charity stripe.
The first-year head coach at Allen has made consistency his theme in practice and in the early-going this year, but he said he hasn’t seen much of it during the Lady Red Devils’ losing skid.
“Quite frankly, I think we talk about it, but we don’t want to be about it,” Buchanan said. “And that’s what I tell them on and off. And that’s my way of trying to challenge them to be about it and fight back. At times we’ll do it, but the consistency of it is not near what it needs to be nor frequent enough.”
Buchanan added leadership might be an issue with a young team like Allen.
Without a vocal floor captain that can encourage the players when they’re down, a team can have a difficult time overcoming adversity. Buchanan hopes to find a standout leader in time for the Lady Red Devils’ conference slate, which picks up after the Thanksgiving break.
“This is a huge moment for us,” Buchanan said. “This is very crucial for us.”
Allen will play the reigning NJCAA Division-II national champion in Johnson County Community College tonight at 6 p.m., which should show the resolve of the Lady Red Devils.