On a day in which Allen Community College honored legends of its past, the Red Devil women reminded all in attendance the present day’s squad is looking pretty good, too.
Allen limited visiting Kansas City Kansas to 30% shooting and forced 30 Blue Devil turnovers while cruising to a 67-35 victory.
While the Red Devils had troubles finding the bucket at times, it didn’t matter much to ACC head coach Leslie Crane.
“When you play defense like that, you win ugly,” she said. “And they don’t ask you how pretty the win was. Winning ugly is fine.”
Sophomore guard Mafalda Chambel was a one-woman wrecking crew at times, including a memorable possession in which she forced a 10-second call on KCK, even though she was the only defender applying ball pressure.
And that sequence didn’t even count among the eight steals she registered.
“She’s pretty good,” Crane laughed. “We’re definitely gonna miss her when she’s gone.”
Chambel wasn’t too bad on the offensive end, either, dishing out five assists and pulling down seven rebounds.
Meanwhile, teammate Tawhirakura Doyle was hot from outside, hitting 3 of 4 3-pointers as Allen held leads of 16-10, 32-18 and 46-28 before ending the game on a 21-8 run.
The victory snapped a two-game skid for the Red Devils and kept them in line for a potential top-two seed in the upcoming Region VI playoffs.
Allen was to play Highland Monday in a critical makeup game — results were unavailable by press time — to wrap up the regular season.
Crane pointed to a tough loss last week at unbeaten Johnson County, in which Allen held a lead late in regulation before falling in overtime, as evidence the Red Devils can play with anyone in the country.
“I feel confident about what we’re doing, and the players should feel confident, too,” she said. “We just have to take care of business and win the games we’re supposed to win.”
Doyle led the way with 20 points, while Chambel had 15. Aaliyah Brown added 12 points and eight boards. Alex Bunch also had five assists.
Zoe Clark’s 11 points paced KCK.
SATURDAY’S game preceded an induction ceremony for ACC’s inaugural Red Devil Athletics Hall of Fame class.
