Seventeen assists told Allen County Community College head coach Anwar Perry that his team was moving the basketball well in Monday’s 79-50 win at home.
“It is so good to finally get a win,” Perry said after his team posted its first win of the 2010-2011 season. The Red Devils defeated the Ottawa University junior varsity.
“After playing three or four of the top teams in the nation in our first seven games, we needed this win. It gives our kids some confidence in their game and some momentum heading into conference play.”
The Red Devils opened the season 0-7 with losses to fourth-ranked Hutchinson, 10th-ranked Missouri State University-West Plains and State Fair Community College. Perry and the Red Devils wanted Monday’s game in the win column before playing their first Jayhawk Eastern Division contest.
That comes next Wednesday at Chanute against Neosho County Community College.
“We were able to really run our offense tonight and we got to play everybody,” Perry said. “Ottawa plays a lot of zone defense and we got to run our zone offense.”
Unlike the first seven games of the season, Allen County never trailed in Monday’s game. Freshman Jake Benton hit two free throws seconds into the game for ACCC then his putback at the 18:25 mark triggered a 16-0 run by the Red Devils.
In that span, Allen County got two baskets each from Jason Smith and Tahshaun Kelly and a field goal each from Terrell Shears and Rickey Hollis. Kelly sank two free throws.
Brock McGinnis nailed a three-pointer for Ottawa which was answered by a trey from Keevis Tukes. Tukes hit two more threes to push ACCC’s lead to 27-12 with 9:08 left. Allen County led 40-23 at halftime.
“We’ve had times in games where we can’t make a stop or don’t score. With the rotation of players we had going in the game, the couple times we seemed to be a little out of sync I called a timeout,” Perry said.
“The guys responded to that. We had 11 of the 12 players who played scored. We moved the ball well and got the good shots.”
Allen County built a 60-31 lead by the 11:36 mark of the second half.
The Red Devils shot 48 percent, 32 of 66, from the field. They were 7 of 13 at the free-throw line.
Robert Wright came off the ACCC bench to hit four three-pointers and score 14 points. Kelly tossed in 12 and Shears had 11.
Shears had three steals and Jason Smith, ACCC’s leading scorer, dished out four assists. Benton and Shears each had four rebounds.
Ottawa was led by Nico Schmeer with 17 points. McGinnis added 11 and Clad Kueffer had 10 points. The Braves shot 39.5 percent, 17 of 43, from the field and hit 9 of 16 free throw attempts.
“We know Neosho County is a great outside shooting team. We’re going to have to play well at their place to give ourselves an opportunity to open conference play with a win,” Perry said. “Our guys are excited about conference play and now we have a little momentum.”
Allen County (40-39—79) (FG/3-pt): Smith 3-0-0-6, Tukes 0/3-0-1-9, Kelly 5-2-1-12, Shears 5-1-1-11, Benton 2-2-1-6, Wright 1/4-0-1-14, Hollis 2-0-0-4, McDowell 2/1-0-0-7, Rourk 1-1-4-3, Myrick 0-0-1-0, O’Neal 1-1-2-3, Daniel 2-0-2-4. TOTALS: 24/8-7-14-79.
Ottawa JV (23-27—50) (FG/3-pt): Schmeer 3/2-5-1-17, Gutschenritter 0-1-3-1, Kueffer 2/2-0-1-10, McGinnis 1/3-0-0-11, Belobrajdic 2-3-1-7, Smith 2-0-2-4. TOTALS: 10/7-9-8-50.
