Coaches believe in giving second chances.
But not when it comes to surrendering second-chance points to their opponents.
Allen Community College’s men’s basketball team surrendered far too many second-chance opportunities to visiting Pratt Wednesday, “and they converted on them, it seemed like every time,” ACC head coach Andy Shaw said.
Pratt, winless in Jayhawk Conference action entering Wednesday, led nearly the entire second half, pulling away down the stretch for an 87-74 victory.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got to be better,” Shaw said. “That one hurts. It was straight toughness. It wasn’t anything special they were running. They played with greater energy than we did. They came in here and took it from us.”
Pratt out-rebounded Allen 51 to 35 and pulled down 21 offensive rebounds, including 13 in the first half, preventing the Red Devils from extending their small lead.
“We had control of the game early,” Shaw noted. We were keeping the lead, but we were trading baskets. We never could separate, and they hung around and made their move late in the first half.”
Allen’s Corey Reynolds scored five straight points for Allen midway through the half, including a 3-pointer to give ACC a 25-20 lead.
Pratt responded with six straight points to jump in front.
The Red Devils never led after that. Allen trailed by three at the break, and Tyren Shelley’s trey 30 seconds into the second half knotted the score at 42-42.
The deadlock lasted less than five seconds as Pratt immediately raced upcourt and drilled a subsequent trey to jump back in front, triggering a 15-6 run.
Allen’s Ed Wright II gave the Red Devils a late charge. He scored 14 after the break, and on three occasions scored buckets to slice the deficit to six. At one point, Wright had scored all 12 of the Red Devils’ points over a 5-minute stretch.
But Pratt had answers each time. Malcolm Whitlow’s three-point play at the 5:25 mark put the Beavers up 74-65.
Whitlow hit a 3-pointer with 3:15 left to stretch the lead to double digits for good. He also hit 12 of 14 free throws en route to a 28-point, eight-assist night. Twenty of his 28 points came after halftime.
“I give them credit,” Shaw said, referring to Whitlow. “They had the best player on the floor. He controlled everything for them. He just carved us up.”
