Allen wins fourth in a row with perennial powerhouse JCCC hosting the Red Devils Saturday.

If anything, the 2024-25 Allen Community College men?s basketball season has been a lesson in perseverance.

An injury-ravaged 2023-24 campaign sank any hopes for Red Devil success, a brutal non-conference schedule that put this year?s team at 3-8 at one point.

And a three-game losing streak at the start of the Jayhawk Conference play did little to ease those naysayers.

But that was then as the Red Devils slowly started righting their ship.

And Allen blitzed Neosho County with an early 26-10 run and never looked back Wednesday, rolling to a 78-59 win.

The victory, ACC?s fourth in a row, lifts the Red Devils to 6-4 in conference play and in third place in the standings, 11-12 overall.

?We could have easily folded with our non-conference schedule and then started conference 2-4,? Nee said. ?But the last two weeks, we have really started to figure things out, and guys are buying into their roles. It?s been a lot of fun.?

Allen?s Javeontae Costner, Tyler Pinder and Mike Smith took turns gashing the Panther defense with acrobatic drives to the hoop, particularly in the first half.

?We really guarded them well in the first half,? Nee said.

Pinder?s buzzer-beating 3-pointer at the break gave ACC a 43-24 lead.

The margin swelled to 24 early in the second half before Neosho County rallied with a 14-4 run to cut ACC?s lead to 58-42.

But Costner responded with a layup, Smith converted a traditional 3-point play and then Malachi Schilreff hit a pair of free throws and a layup as part of a 9-0 ACC run to push the lead back to 65-42 with 7:15 left.

The Panthers drew no closer than 16 the rest of the way.

Smith led a quartet of Allen players in double figures with 19. Pinder wound up with 16, Costner 15 and Schilreff 13.

Allen has a doozy of a matchup next on the schedule, when the Red Devils travel Saturday to Johnson County, which remains unbeaten in conference play at 10-0 and ranked 10th in the country. The Cavaliers won a hard-fought 72-60 win over ACC Jan. 22.

?We are very excited for another opportunity vs. Johnson,? said Nee, who suited up for the Cavaliers back in his playing days. ?We will go after them and won?t back down. This game always means a little bit more to me, but I want this win for my guys. They deserve a signature type win.

?It?s our most important game,? he added, ?but that?s because it?s our next game.?

Nee is optimistic the Red Devils will continue peaking over the final two weeks of the regular season.

?Nobody will want to see us in the conference tournament,? he said. ?We?re focused on getting better an inch at a time, every day.?

Article and Photo Credit: Richard Luken