When it came down to the wire, the Allen Community College Red Devils didn’t have the toughness needed to escape with a win over bottom-dweller Cloud County CC.
The T-Birds rested at the bottom of the Jayhawk East standings after losing their last 11 games in a row. But on Thursday, ACC let a nine-point first half lead diminish after halftime, losing the neck-and-neck affair 71-66.
“We couldn’t finish anything at the rim, and the referees were letting it go pretty physical tonight,” ACC head coach Andy Shaw said. “I thought we were getting bumped around the rim, but they weren’t giving it to us. We have to be tougher than that, and finish through guys because this is college basketball, and sometimes referees are going to call it that way.”
ACC took over possession with 1:55 remaining in the fourth after Tyus Jeffries stood in the lane to take a charge. Trailing 65-61, Joel Boyce cut the lead in half with a quick score. A T-Birds traveling violation handed the ball back over to ACC, but Trez Hankins’ floater in the lane was rejected. Cloud answered with a put-back slam to regain the four-point advantage.
Boyce kept ACC within a possession after converting 1 of 2 from the charity stripe. After the missed T-bird free throw with one minute remaining, Boyce attacked the rim, fiishing with the left hand to bring ACC within one.
The Devils were forced to foul, and the T-Birds comfortably sank both charities to remain ahead by three with 10 seconds remaining. Out of the ACC timeout, the inbounds pass was lobbed to Malik Hardmon in the far corner opposite the ACC sideline. Hardmon snatched the ball in mid-air, but landed just out of bounds, giving possession back to Cloud, and ending ACC’s chance of forcing overtime.
“We came out in the second half, and were just extremely flat from the get-go,” Shaw said. “We gave them all the confidence in the second half that they could play with us.”
IN the first half, the two sides remained deadlocked at 10-10 five minutes in. Hankins provided the spark off the bench, knocking down a pair of 3-pointers to put the Devils ahead 17-12. Hankins finished with 17 points on 33% shooting from the field.
Hardmon scored 22 points in the first half, including a stretch of nine straight. ACC’s go-to option was held to only four points in the second.
When it came down to the little things, ACC snagged 14 offensive rebounds in the first half, but finished the game with 18. Usually dead-eye from the line, the Red Devils left points on the scoreboard, shooting 13 of 21 from the stripe. Consistency is key, and ACC couldn’t find it on Thursday.
“Most teams score more points in the second half than they did in the first, and we got cut in half. It went from 44 to 22,” Shaw said. “I don’t feel like it was anything they did by changing their schemes, we just couldn’t put the ball in the hole.”
The Devils sit at 9-8 in the Jayhawk East, one game behind Independence who ACC hosts on Wednesday in their final home regular season game of the season. The Devils travel to division leader Cowley County on Saturday.
