Three Jayhawk Eastern Division games are on the road to open conference play.
There’s two ways of thinking when seeing Allen County Community College’s basketball schedule for the second semester of the 2011-2012 season. ACCC head coaches Mark James and Anwar Perry are taking the positive approach.
Both mention the fact that going to Kansas City, Kan., Community College Wednesday, Fort Scott Community College Saturday and Neosho County Community College next Wednesday at Chanute are three conference games on the road without student body fans.
“I look at it as maybe being able to sneak a couple of wins on the road before their students are back. Fan base is huge in our conference and being on the road this early might be good so we can hit our stride without opposing teams’ fans making it tougher,” said Perry, ACCC men’s basketball head coach.
“It’s tough to win on the road in this conference. We’ll have our hands full,” said James, Red Devil women’s head coach. “And to start the Jayhawk East slate with three road games — wow. But I see it as that it sets us up pretty good on the backside of the schedule. Those teams have to come to our place later.”
James also mention the student body angle.
Allen County plays at home Jan. 14 against Coffeyville when its students are back on campus.
The ACCC women finished their non-conference schedule in December winning three of their last four games. They open Jayhawk East play on a two-game winning streak and a 5-7 overall mark.
“Everybody came back off break on time and we’ve had really good practices. They are working hard. We have a group of girls who wanted to get back after it,” James said. “Finishing strong in the first semester helped us and we had some of the most spirited and hardest practices during that run.”
Allen County’s women average 58 points per game and had 160 steals in their first 12 games. Rackell Goldson, the team’s lone sophomore, leads the Red Devils averaging 11.3 points and almost six rebounds a game.
Miracle Davis has pulled down 72 rebounds and handed out 73 assists. Davis also leads the Red Devils in steals with 45. Kayla Morton made 37 steals and 22 assists. Both freshmen along with Brittney Redmond average eight points a game.
“Rackell has been good about talking to our freshmen about what it takes to play in this conference as well as (assistant) Coach (Aubrey) Jones who played in the conference,” James said.
Allen County’s men got a good bounce going into the holiday break off an 85-84 overtime win at Penn Valley Community College. The ACCC men are 6-6 after losing the first four games of the season. They are 4-1 at home.
Sophomores Terrell Shears, Canon Fields and freshman Tyrone Jones all averaged double figures in scoring for the Red Devils. Shears averages 15 points and 12.5 rebounds a game while Fields scored 11 points a game and leads the team with 66 assists and 21 steals. Jones averages 10 points a game. Jeff Romeus, a freshman, had nine points a game and is the team’s top three-point shooter, 22 of 62.
“We’ve stressed doing the little things right. It’s all about effort. Are we mature enough to handle a lead and are we mature enough to come from behind? Turnovers and rebounding were problems for us early,” Perry said.
