The Allen Community College Red Devils are still undefeated and Coach Leslie Crane hopes to keep them that way despite competition stiffing ahead of the Jayhawk Conference kickoff in January.

The Allen Community College Red Devils pushed their undefeated record to 7-0 after pounding the North Central Missouri College Pirates 80-66 Wednesday night.

Coach Leslie Crane said she liked what she saw but hopes for continued improvement despite just breaking into the top 10 in the most recent NJCAA national poll.

“It was a good win and as coaches we like things to look better in the fourth quarter, crisper and smarter,” Coach Crane said. “In the fourth quarter, we did not look crisp at all. We stood up instead of getting down and we switched up our defense. We may have over-thought it as coaches, but I don’t think that’s the case.”

Four players reached double digits in scoring with freshman forward Jalynn Weakley coming off the bench for a team-leading 15 points. Sophomore center Yolaine Luthi, freshman forward Emma Varennes and sophomore forward Tawhirikura Doyle each had 13 points.

Crane liked what she saw out of the New Zealander Doyle.

“We held her out last weekend,” Crane said. “She had some chronic injuries we wanted to get healed and I’m glad we did because she looked pretty good tonight. She did some nice things, especially in that first half with her quickness and speed.”

Freshman forward Joniya Lewis was second in team scoring with 8 points, but her primary contribution was under the basket with 13 rebounds. She also tied sophomore guard Delta Shaw for the team lead in assists with three each and her two steals put her one behind Luthi for the team lead.

“We had the Madison connection with Jalynn and Yolaine playing together,” Crane said. “They’re doing a nice job of getting rebounds and put-backs together. Jalynn and Janiya are just fiends when it comes to rebounding. She didn’t score as much, but she had 13 rebounds. Jalynn had eight rebounds and 15 points. A lot of those were put-backs.”

Although winning big in their past three games, Coach Crane said she is not pulling back in terms of the Red Devils’ development. As they get closer to the Jayhawk Conference season, and opponents improve, playing consistent, clean defense may be the deciding factor.

“We gave up too many shots at the free-throw line,” Crane said. “We gave up 28 shots that we can’t defend. We can’t do that and expect to win games. That has to change.”

Article and Photo Credit: Iola Register