Panthers drop Red Devils on final shot

Allen County Community College’s Red Devils seemed snake-bitten on their home basketball court.
For the third straight game at home, the Red Devils watched another team celebrate a Jayhawk Eastern Division win Saturday. On a rag-tag play, Neosho County Community College’s Devon Crabtree scored at the buzzer to give his team a 72-71 win.
The Panthers made one more play than the Red Devils. The Red Devils played well in their homecoming contest including a comeback from an 11-point deficit in the second half.
Jason Smith brought the Red Devils back on the offensive end while the entire ACCC team made the plays at the defensive end. Smith’s three-point play with 1:45 left in the game made it 66-62. Trey Anderson scored for the Panthers to push the lead back to six.
Smith, who was 16 of 20 at the free-throw line, kept driving to the basket and hitting free throws. Allen County’s full-court press came up with key turnovers. It was a 68-66 game with just under a minute to play.
Anderson missed on a one-and-one opportunity and Allen County’s Thomas Daniel pulled the defensive rebound. Smith drove, scored and was fouled. He sank the free throw giving the Devils a 69-68 lead with 35.7 seconds left.
The Red Devils were not celebrating yet. They saw this Tuesday night when they had a six-point lead evaporate in 32 seconds and lost in overtime to Cowley County.
It was deja vu for the Red Devils from a week ago when Independence won a game in the ACCC gym. Anderson missed on two free throw attempts but got his own rebound, was fouled and hit two tosses with 24.5 seconds left.
Following a timeout, the Red Devils moved the basketball to just past midcourt and called their final timeout. Neosho County’s 6-10 Gregroyshon Magee blocked a shot by Daniel and was fouled.
Magee missed two free throw attempts with 12 seconds left. Terrell Shears grabbed the rebound for Allen County and made a pass to Rickey Hollis. Hollis drove to the basket and was fouled.
Hollis dropped in both charities at the 3.8-second mark putting ACCC up 71-70.
“That was the longest three seconds I’ve ever experienced,” said Anwar Perry, ACCC head coach. “We had people in place to make the plays. Keeves made a play by knocking the ball down but they scoped it up and made a pass down court to Crabtree.”
The loss dropped Allen County to 2-8 in the Jayhawk East and 5-16 overall. The Red Devils’ two conference wins came on the road and they go back on the road all this week. They go to Highland Tuesday and Kansas City, Kan., Saturday.
Allen County’s players sported pink warm-up shirts and pink shoe laces. Both head coaches were in tennis shoes and Perry wore a pink shirt in support of Coaches vs. Cancer.
Allen County did what it wanted throughout much of the game. The Red Devils hit more free throws than the Panthers attempted. Allen County was 29 of 41 from the line while Neosho County was 11 of 23.
When the Red Devils fell behind early in the game, they started going inside to Daniel, who had 12 of his 19 points in the first half. Daniel and Shears had back-to-back baskets that tied the game at 23-23 with 5:41 left in the opening half.
Crabtree hit a three then Neosho County head coach Jeremy Coombs was hit with a technical foul. Tukes hit 1 of 2 tosses then Jake Benton missed two free throws for ACCC.
Down by four, Daniel scored and a putback by Smith tied the game up again. Daniel sank two free throws with 42 seconds left until halftime, putting ACCC up 30-29. A Tukes’ basket at the 21-second mark gave Allen County a 32-30 halftime lead.
During halftime, sophomores Jori Graf, Ottawa, and Isiah Smith, Topeka, were crowned 2011 ACCC homecoming queen and king.
Allen County pushed out to a 39-34 lead with 17:24 on the clock. A Shears’ basket at the 11:26 mark gave ACCC a 47-46 lead then the Panthers went on a 13-1 run to gain a 59-48 lead.
“We went away from pounding the ball inside to Thomas. Once we got back to our half-court offense we got back in the game,” Perry said. “When we play our half-court game, we’re almost unstoppable which we proved in the first half.”
Smith led the comeback, scoring nine straight points for the Red Devils. Crabtree nailed a three-pointer then hit two free throws when Tukes was assessed a technical foul. Neosho County led 66-59 at the two-minute mark.
Smith paced the Red Devils with 31 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Tukes had three assists. Allen County shot 38 percent, 20 of 53, from the field.
Crabtree hit five three-pointers on the night but it was his single two-pointer that did the real damage as he finished with 19 points. Anderson had 17 points and Banks had 10 points. The Panthers shot 41 percent, 25 of 61, from the field.
Allen County (32-39—71) (FG/3-pt): Hollis 1-2-4-4, Smith 6/1-16-1-31, Tukes 1/1-3-2-8, Kelly 0-0-3-0, Shears 3-3-4-1-9, Benton 0-0-4-0, Daniel 7-5-4-19. TOTALS: 18/2-29-19-71.
Neosho County (30-42—72) (FG/3-pt): Jackson 4-0-3-8, Banks 2/2-0-3-10, Magee 2-0-5-4, White 4-0-2-8, Long 1-1-0-3, Anderson 2/2-7-3-17, Hickert 1-1-5-3, Crabtree 1/5-2-3-19. TOTALS: 17/9-11-23-72.