Keeping pace in the Jayhawk Eastern Division and with an eye on finishing in the top four spots, Allen County Community College’s Red Devils came up with a big win at home Saturday.
After two straight losses, the Red Devils made the ACCC homecoming crowd happy with a 78-59 win over Kansas City, Kan., Community College. The win puts the Red Devils at 9-5 in Jayhawk East play and 14-11 overall.
With Neosho County’s 73-64 win over Johnson County Monday night, the Red Devils are tied with Independence (9-5, 16-10) while Neosho County improved to 10-5 and 18-9.
The Red Devils travel to Chanute Wednesday to take on the Neosho County Community College Panthers.
Right now, Coffeyville is at 12-2 followed by Cowley County at 12-3. Neosho County is third with Allen County and Independence tied for fourth.
“We challenged our guys to play well defensively. This team beat us by 26 points at their place and No. 23 (Derrick Denny) hit nine threes against us and leads the region in three-point shooting,” said Mike Hayes, ACCC head coach.
“We held him (Denny) to eight points tonight. We really played well defensively the entire game.”
Hayes wasn’t displeased with his team’s offensive numbers either.
The Red Devils shot 72 percent, 28 of 39, from the field overall. They were 6 of 10 from three-point range. They cashed in on 16 of 22 free throw attempts, which was 73 percent.
“This was a must game for us because of how we’re sitting in the conference and losing two straight,” Hayes said. “We kept our turnovers down and really did a good job on the offensive boards.”
Allen County jumped out to a 10-2 lead led by Andra Bailey with two baskets and Aaron Jackson with a field goal. Dennis Rumph had a basket and downed two free throws,
When Denny hit his first three of the night for the Blue Devils, Allen County’s Gavin Cole answered back with a trey. Denny had one more three, also in the first half, for the game.
The Red Devils never allowed the Blue Devils a long run. Allen County was up 34-21 at halftime.
Kansas City trimmed the ACCC led to 37-26 three minutes into the second half. Anthony Clagett downed two free throws and Keevis Tukes fired in a three for the Red Devils.
Jackson drove down the lane and dumped the ball off to Bailey for an easy layup. Midway through the second half, Allen County had a 52-33 lead.
“They made a run at us and got it down to 10 points again. I took a timeout to talk to them about running the offense and taking time off the clock. We settled down and did that well the rest of the way,” Hayes said.
Allen County outscored Kansas City 22-13 in the final six minutes.
Bailey had a double-double with 16 points and 14 rebounds. Jackson scored 15 points and Cole had 13 points. Rumph added 11.
Tukes had four assists and two steals. Erik Law had two steals.
Dennis Tinnon scored 20 points for the Blue Devils. Melvin Gatson had 11 points.
Allen County (34-44—78) (FG/3-pt): Jackson 4/1-4-1-15, Rumph 3/1-2-4-11, Tukes 3/1-0-1-9, Clagett 0-4-3-4, Cole 2/3-0-1-13, Law 1-4-1-6, Bailey 7-2-2-16, Lee 2-0-1-4. TOTALS: 22/6-16-14-78.
Kansas City (22-37—59) (FG/3-pt): Tinnon 7/1-3-2-20, McDonald 0-1-2-1, Jones 0-0-1-0, Gatson 3/1-2-2-11, Metoyer 1-0-3-2, Fruehling 1/1-1-1-6, Denny 1/2-0-3-8, Taylor 0-2-1-2, Wright 3/1-0-3-9. TOTALS: 16/6-9-18-59.
Red Devils defeat Blue Devils
