Playing the first three Jayhawk Eastern Division games on the road, Allen County Community College’s Red Devils were happy to be on their home court Saturday.
Unfortunately, the Red Devils faced the fifth-ranked Coffeyville Community College Red Ravens. They were up for the challenge for the first 11 minutes.
“We could not put the ball in the basket that last nine minutes of the first half. Usually, we don’t have a good start and have to play catchup,” said Anwar Perry, ACCC head coach. “We had a good start tonight then we didn’t execute at either end of the court.”
Allen County led 24-22 with 8:54 left in the first half and went to the locker room at halftime down 38-28. Coffeyville outscored Allen County 44-41 in the second half to win 82-69.
The Red Devils were going toe-to-toe with the Red Ravens early on. Three-pointers by Terrell Shears and Chris Parker had the Red Devils up 14-10 at the 14:02 mark.
Coffeyville and Allen County battled right up until that 8:54 mark. Ricky Hollis connected for a basket then Shears hit another three to get the 24-22 edge.
Enter Ethan Cordray for Coffeyville. Cordray drained three treys to spark the Ravens’ 16-4 run to halftime. Coffeyville led by 10 at the break.
It was catch-up ball all second half for Allen County.
The Red Devils lost the services of 6-4 freshman Tyrone Jones because of eligibility. Jones was ACCC’s third-leading scorer in the first semester of play.
“With the loss of Tyrone, we’re trying to find someone who will step up and contribute but we haven’t seen it happen yet,” Perry said.
“We had nine turnovers in the first half and that’s huge against a team like Coffeyville. They had 27 points off our turnovers in the game.”
The Ravens led by as many as 19 points, 58-39, with 11:45 left in the game. Allen County chipped away and got within 11 points, 72-61 late in the game.
“We did outrebound them (32 to 29) but we have to sustain some scoring,” Perry said.
The Red Devils fell to 0-4 in conference play and 6-10 overall. They go to Independence Wednesday.
Canon Fields fired in 19 points plus had five assists and two steals for ACCC. Shears posted a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds. Allen County shot 39 percent, 20 of 51, from the field and went 21 of 29 at the free-throw line.
