The Allen Men's Basketball team won a very important matchup over the KCK Blue Devils on Saturday evening by the final score of 66-59. The Red Devils and Blue Devils were both sitting at 10 wins in Conference coming into the game, as both teams were still in the hunt for a KJCCC regular season Championship. The Red Devils got off to a nice start as Cedric Rollerson connected on a couple of 3 point attempts, and Allen would never trail in the contest for the entire 40 minutes. Allen was hot from the 3 point line as several guys knocked down open 3's. The Red Devils would lead by as much as 12 midway through the half, but KCK would mount a comeback of their own. Allen's offense became stagnant and the ball seemed to be stuck as the Red Devils offense struggled to find scoring in the final few minutes of the first half. Fortunately Allen was able to hang on to a 6 point lead at the break with a score of 33-27.
Allen started the second half strong as they executed on back to back set calls to increase the lead to 9 points. From there the two teams would trade baskets for several minutes as both teams struggled to get defensive stops. KCK would slowly chop the lead down to just one point, but Allen would respond as Ed Wright got to the foul line off a back door attempt, and then Cedric Rollerson followed that up with a step-back 3 pointer to put the Red Devils ahead by multiple possessions.
Allen would get a defensive stop with just under a minute remaining and the Blue Devils elected not to foul while down 5 points. After a loose ball the Red Devils called timeout with 8 seconds on the shot clock. Nick Whittick used a ball screen a knocked down the game sealing jump shot from just inside the 3 point line. Whittick's shot put Allen ahead by 7 points with 25 seconds to go. The Blue Devils would miss on the ensuing possession and Allen escaped with a 66-59 win.
Cedric Rollerson led all scorers with 21 points on 6-11 from the floor, and 3-5 from the 3 point line. Rollerson also dished out 6 assists. Ed Wright finished the game with 15 points and 7 rebounds.
Allen is now 22-5 on the season and 11-1 in the KJCCC standings. Allen and Johnson County are currently tied at 11-1 in Conference, and the two teams square off twice next week. Allen will host Johnson County in Iola on Monday February 21st at 8:00 pm, and then the Red Devils will travel to Overland Park on Thursday February 24th for the final regular season game at Johnson County. The Red Devils are currently #17 in the latest NJCAA rankings, while the Johnson County Cavaliers are ranked #5.