The Allen Men's Basketball team defeated Johnson County 74-72 in the Region VI Championship on Saturday afternoon in Salina, Kansas. With this win Allen will receive a bid to the NJCAA D2 National Tournament in Danville, Illinois. 

Allen got off to a quick start as Ed Wright knocked down a corner 3 to get started. The Red Devils would lead for the majority of the first half, and even led by as many as 11 points late in the half. Johnson would close on a run, but Ahmed Mahgoub got a offensive putback to extend the Allen lead back to 7 points at half time 32-25. 

The early going of the second half was all Johnson County. The Cavaliers started the half on a 23-3 run to go up by as many as 13 points. The Red Devils would have to regroup after several called timeouts. Allen slowly chipped into the Johnson lead, and eventually tied the game up late in the contest. With under a minute remaining Johnson held a 4-point advantage, but a Tyren Shelley 3 cut the lead to just one point. Johnson would get fouled on the ensuing possession but only connected on 1 of 2. Allen's first attempt to tie or take the lead was blocked out of bounds. On the inbound from underneath Ed Wright caught the ball in the corner and was fouled on a 3-point attempt. Wright calmly knocked down all 3 free-throws to give Allen a 1-point advantage. 

Johnson County quickly raced the ball up the floor, but Ahmed Mahgoub stepped over and took a big charge to give Allen the ball back. Cedric Rollerson would connect on 1 of attempts giving Allen a 2-point lead with 7 seconds left. 

Tymer Jackson drove the length of the floor for Johnson and attempted a game winning 3 and missed the rim, but Korey Jones got the offensive tip-in for Johnson County. The refs signaled for review to see if the shot would count, and after review called the basket off which gave Allen the two-point victory. 

Ed Wright led the way in scoring with 34 points on 8-18 FG, and 14-16 from the free-throw line. Cedric Rollerson scored 15 points and grabbed 5 rebounds. 

Allen is now 27-5 overall on the season. The Red Devils will find out who their first round opponent will be during the selection show on Tuesday March 8th at 1:00 pm.