Allen Community College’s women found the winning recipe Wednesday, with a dash of outside shooting, seasoned with some solid inside play and capped with a heaping helping of defense.
The Red Devils picked up their first win of the 2021 season by pulling away in the second half to defeat visiting Dodge City Community College, 55-50.
“It was a great team win,” Red Devil head coach Rachel Janzen said. “Ever since our Northwest Tech trip (Feb. 3 in Goodland), we’ve kind of turned it around. We’re playing together. Starting to get that inside-out game, which they hadn’t really understood yet.
“Like I said, they’re all freshmen. They’re really learning from each other.”
The game was tightly fought throughout. The score was deadlocked at 42-42 when Allison Towe drilled a 3-point basket from well beyond the 3-point line in the last seconds of the third quarter.
The successful shot gave the home crowd a jolt, as well as Towe’s teammates.
“She hit one from that deep against Northwest Tech,” Janzen chuckled.
The Red Devils never trailed again.
Allen’s Adji Mbaye took over down the stretch. She scored on back-to-back drives to the hoop to open a 53-46 lead, Allen’s largest of the game.
Dodge City’s Kelmora Banks sandwiched a pair of baskets around two ACC turnovers, slicing the deficit to 53-50 with a minute remaining.
A tie-up gave the ball back to the Conquistadors, but Dodge City was off the mark on a layup, giving possession back to the Red Devils.
Towe hit 1 of 2 charities for a 54-50 lead, before another tie-up on Dodge City’s next possession gave the ball back to Allen. Towe hit the final charity with 14 seconds left to cap the scoring.
Melody Wilfong was the Red Devils’ early catalyst, draining five 3-pointers in the first half as Dodge City took a 27-26 lead into the break.
Madisyn Holloway’s trey early in the third quarter knotted the score at 29-29, the first of three ties and two lead changes in the period.
“We’ve started this new thing, go quarter by quarter, 10 minutes at a time. Win this quarter.
When we took the lead with that 3 in the third, I said, ‘We do not look back,’ and we didn’t.”
The Red Devil defense limited Dodge City to 28% shooting
