The Red Devil women’s basketball team faced what will be its toughest test of the non-conference slate on Saturday night when it welcomed the nation’s No. 10 team to Iola.
Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College came into Saturday’s game with something to prove after a narrow loss to the NJCAA’s No. 2 team Highland Community College the night before.
The Lady Norse were able to prove that they deserve their high ranking with an 86-43 victory.
The Red Devils stayed competitive with the highly ranked team through much of the first half. Freshman Tamera Shaver hit a three in the first quarter to give Allen an 8-7 lead.
“I think that at first we were executing the game plan really well,” Allen coach Todd Buchanan said. “We were playing quick, but not in a hurry. That is our motto.”
In the second quarter, a Chelsey Trautloff three, off of a Kendra Houston assist, tied the game at 15-15, but that would be as close as Allen would get to another lead.
“I thought our defense confused them a little bit,” Buchanan said.
Northeastern Oklahoma A&M answered with a 14-3 run and took a 33-25 lead into halftime.
“I was extremely, extremely proud of our execution in the first half,” Buchanan said. “We were within striking distance, but then it was like deja vue and we never came out of the locker room and we get outscored 30-6 in the third quarter.”
The Lady Norse outscored Allen 53-21 after halftime to cruise to their victory.
Noexcuses, no regrets, but we have to learn and learn in a hurry with 10 new players and nine of them freshmen,” Buchanan said.
Houston led the Red Devils with nine points in the game and Sequerah Alleyne added six. Both players contributed to Allen’s bench which outscored the starting 26-17.
Allen’s top scorers among its starters were Akia Andrews and Kori Seals, who each had five points.
Red Devils fall to top-10 squad
