Allen County Community College’s Red Devils take a two-game winning streak into the NJCAA Region VI, Division I playoffs. They made it a little more difficult on themselves in Saturday’s season finale at home.
“It was an ugly win but we’ll take it,” said Anwar Perry, ACCC men’s head coach, following the Red Devils holding off Johnson County Community College’s Cavaliers for a 54-52 win.
“I told our guys if we let them hang around that we’d have to fight it out down the stretch and that’s what happened. We missed too many layups throughout the game. We’ve got to make layups or we’re not going far in the playoffs.”
Allen County has won six of its last eight games to go 8-10 in Jayhawk Eastern Division play and 14-16 overall. The Red Devils earned the No. 7 seed out of the East in this week’s playoffs.
Allen County travels to Hutchinson to take on 19th-ranked Hutchinson Community College’s Blue Dragons (24-6). Hutchinson is the No. 2 seed out of the Jayhawk West. Tipoff is at 7:30 p.m.
The Red Devils and Cavaliers were in a back-and-forth contest Saturday afternoon. Midway through the first half, a basket by Mychael Anderson put the Red Devils up 13-12.
Canon Fields completed a three-point play at the 9:23 mark then Terrence Williams downed two free throws to push ACCC’s lead to 18-12. The Cavaliers came back to within two points at 18-16.
Williams scored for the Red Devils but Justin Leathers sank both ends of a one-and-one for the Cavaliers. With 4:09 left in the half, Quasim Jones hit one of two free throws to cut the margin to one point.
Allen County was up 23-19 on a putback by Williams but Johnson County was able to score four straight to tie the game. Fields came up with one of his four steals in the game and was fouled. He hit two free throws allowing the Red Devils to go into the locker room up 25-23.
The game was tied four more times in the second half. Neither team led by more than seven points until the 7:56 mark. Johnson County’s Melvin Turner had a follow shot then hit one of two free throws to give his team a 46-38 advantage.
Seth Walden had a tough shooting day until he drilled a three-pointer with 7:27 on the clock. Johnson County turned the ball over on the inbounds play and Walden knocked down another three, trimming the deficit to two points.
Allen County had two empty possessions following Cavaliers turnovers. The third time’s the charm when Fields’ jump shot made it 46-46 with 5:06 left to play.
Johnson County regained the lead and was up 50-46 when Walden hit his third trey for ACCC. Down one, Williams, who hadn’t scored in the second half, claimed a defensive rebound.
The play drew the dissatisfaction of Johnson County head coach Mike Jeffers and a technical foul on him. Fields sank both free throws for Allen County for a 51-50 lead but the Red Devils didn’t take care of the basketball on the ensuing possession.
Jones scored for the Cavaliers at the 1:12 mark to put them back in front by one. Anderson netted a three-pointer for a 54-52 Red Devil lead.
