Both Allen Community College men and women suffered close, heartbreaking losses Thursday evening when they hosted Cloud County.
The games, originally scheduled for Wednesday, were moved due to wintry weather in the northern part of the state.
The men (12-7, 4-6) lost 78-75 and the women (3-17, 1-9) 68-62.
The Lady Devils got behind early as Cloud jumped out to a 17-8 lead. The downward slide continued into halftime when the deficit grew to 20, 37-17.
But hot shooting from freshman Gabby Guzman and a strong rebounding effort put the Lady Devils back in the game.
Allen chipped the lead down to nine points late in the third quarter and carried that momentum into the fourth. With three minutes to play, the Lady Devils were within five but just didnt have the juice to complete the effort.
Guzman had 23 points in the loss followed by 12 for freshman Ariel Walker and 10 for sophomore Jakira Wilson. Freshman Tunmi Amusa had six points and 10 rebounds.
THE ALLEN men came out of the gate rough, but thanks in part to a strong couple of minutes at the end of the first half were able to go into the break ahead, 41-37.
The sloppy play picked back up to start the second half so instead of pulling away from the Thunderbirds, the Red Devils continued to swap leads throughout the game until late in the second half Cloud pushed its lead to five.
Allen fought back and managed to get within a point with 45 seconds to play and then proceeded to get the ball back with plenty of time to win the game. Sophomore Perry Carroll drove the lane and kicked it out to freshman Trez Hankins who had a potential wide-open, game-winning three.
But the Red Devils then proceeded to foul and send Cloud to the line where they hit both free throws to take a three-point lead with 1.5 seconds to play. Allen managed to get the ball up the court in time for Carroll to have another good look at the basket but the ball rimmed out, landing the Red Devils with the loss.
Sophomore Jamaal Clifton had a near double-double with 20 points and nine rebounds to lead the way for the Red Devils followed by 15 for sophomore Darius Love, 12 for Hankins and 11 and five assists for Carroll.
Both teams travel to Ark City on Saturday to take on Cowley Community College.
