Allen County Community College’s Red Devils were a bit inconsistent for the first 30 minutes of Wednesday’s game. That allowed Labette Community College’s Cardinals, who are winless in Jayhawk Eastern Division play, to hang around.
Sixteen first-half turnovers and a missed free throw with 2.6 seconds left, the Red Devils were lucky to have a 35-34 halftime lead. It was still a one-point game with 12 minutes to play.
Allen County finally took firm hold on the game with a 14-1 run. The Red Devils kept the Cardinals winless with a 72-53 win at home.
“We finally settled down and were patient in the offense,” said Anwar Perry, ACCC head coach, of the final 10 minutes of the game. “We were complacent against their zone defense in the first half.
“We were aggressively attacking it. In the second half, we went to our man offense to attack the zone.”
The Red Devils improved to 4-11 in Jayhawk East play and 7-19 overall. The Cardinals dropped to 0-12 and 2-25.
Allen County has its final home game Saturday against Fort Scott (2-13, 3-23). Tipoff is at 8 p.m.
Next week, the Red Devils are on the road at Independence Wednesday and Cowley County on Feb. 26.
The Red Devils had their hands full against the Cardinals, who are all freshmen. The game was tied five times in the first five minutes.
Terrell Shears broke a 14-14 tie at the 15:02 mark. It was 18-16 when Thomas Daniel and Tukes had back-to-back baskets. Shears had a tip-in to make it 21-16 at the 11:28 mark.
The Cardinals battled back as Allen County went through a rash of turnovers. A putback by Tavion Fleeks pulled the Cardinals even again, 27-27.
Jake Benton had a tip-in for Allen County, then Jason Smith sank one of two free throws. Smith got loose for his second dunk of the half to put ACCC up 32-27 with 5:30 to play.
Every time it appeared the Red Devils were ready to take complete control in the first half, turnovers allowed Labette to come right back.
The Cardinals scored six unanswered points to grab a 33-32 lead with two minutes to play.
Smith, who finished with 23 points and five assists, had a three-point play. He missed on two more foul shots with under a minute to play.
Fleeks hit the first of two attempts at the line for the Cardinals with 2.6 seconds on the clock. A lane violation by Labette wiped out a second attempt which left ACCC up by one, 35-34, at the break.
The back-and-forth action continued in the second half. Labette led 40-38 at the 15:46 mark.
A follow shot by Daniel tied it up. Tahshaun Kelly, in his first game back after a death in the family, scored to put ACCC in front to stay.
Ritea Acosta had a three-point play for the Cardinals to close the gap to one, 44-43. Kelly’s jumper and a free throw by Smith put ACCC up 47-43.
Tyler Myrick, who got a starting slot in the game, made a tap-out of an offensive rebound to Daniel. Daniel delivered a basket.
After Randy Lokemba sank a free throw for LCC, Smith drained back-to-back threes to spark a 10-0 run. Rickey Hollis had two straight baskets to finish the run and ACCC led 59-44.
“I changed the starting lineup because Tyler works hard and he did a lot of good things in there for us tonight. Rickey continues to step up and show maturity, as does Tahshaun,” Perry said.
“Jake gave us great minutes off the bench and had that nice tip-in. We began executing the half-court offense well at the end.”
Allen County shot 55 percent, 27 of 49, from the field and dropped in 13 of 19 free throw attempts. Labette was 22 of 48, 46 percent, from the field and 9 of 17 at the line.
Daniel finished with 14 points, four rebounds and three steals. Shears scored 11 points and secured four rebounds. Hollis dished out six assists and Kelly had four assists.
Acosta paced the Cardinals with 19 points and Lokemba had 13.
Allen County (35-37 —72) (FG/3-pt): Wright 1-0-0-2, Hollis 3-2-0-8, Smith 4/3-6-1-23, Shears 4/1-0-4-11, Daniel 6-2-4-14, Tukes 1/1-0-0-5, Kelly 2-0-4-4, Myrick 0-0-1-0, Benton 1-3-3-5. TOTALS: 22/5-13-17-72.
Labette (34-19—53) (FG/3-pt): Smith 3-0-2-6, Fleeks 3-1-0-7, Lokemba 3-7-2-13, Acosta 9-1-1-19, Thomas 3-0-3-6, Smith 1-0-2-2, Hatchett 0-0-3-0. TOTALS: 22-9-13-53.
Red Devil men flush Cardinals
