Knowing they’d be on the road for the playoffs, Allen County Community College’s Red Devil women were looking to pick up a little momentum in their home regular-season finale Saturday afternoon.
Johnson County Community College’s Lady Cavaliers, ranked No. 1 in NJCAA Division II, were in town. It was sophomore night — the Red Devils have just one sophomore, leading scorer and rebounder Rackell Goldson.
“Johnson County executed and we didn’t. The girls played hard but we didn’t play well enough to beat the No. 1 team in the conference and the nation,” said Mark James, ACCC women’s head coach, after losing 72-51.
“We were hoping to use this game to give us a boost into the playoffs. Win or lose, we wanted to play better than we did on Wednesday and we struggled again.”
Allen County ended its best season since 2007-2008 on a five-game losing streak. James said only the last two games were disappointing.
“We played well and lost in the first three of those losses but this week we didn’t play the way we had started to and so we have to go back to work in practices to get back to the level we want.”
There’s not much time.
The Red Devils learned Sunday they are seeded fifth for the playoffs that begin Wednesday. They go to the Jayhawk Western Division fourth seed, Seward County Community College, in Liberal. They play at 6 p.m.
Allen County posted a 6-12 mark in Jayhawk East play, tying for sixth with Labette Community College of Parsons. The Red Devils are 11-19 overall.
The Red Devils netted 10 three-pointers in the game. Jamie Peel hit five of those treys. Allen County’s first three baskets of the game were threes — one by Ebonie Jones and two by Peel.
Peel led the Red Devils with 18 points and Jones, who had three threes, finished with 12 points.
Allen County hung with Johnson County through the first 10 minutes. The Cavaliers were up 23-11 with just under 10 minutes left in the first half. A three-pointer by Hannah Blackwell with 13 seconds on the clock got the Red Devils within 12, 33-20, at halftime.
Goldson opened the second half with a basket then Jones drained a trey to cut the Johnson County lead to eight. The Cavaliers went inside to Polly Harrington, who scored 19 points in the game, for six consecutive points.
Johnson County extended its lead to 48-29 by the 9:30 mark.
Allen County shot 30 percent, 16 of 53, from the field while Johnson County only shot 34 percent, 24 of 70. The Cavaliers cashed in on 17 of 27 free throw attempts and the Red Devils went 9 of 14 at the free-throw line.
