Allen's women maintained control down the stretch to defeat the Panthers 84-70. The victory keeps the Red Devils in second place in Jayhawk Conference standings.
With the memory of their most disappointing loss of the season still fresh in Allen women?s minds ? a five-point loss from mid-January at rival Neosho County ? the Red Devils were behind the 8-ball early on Saturday in their rematch.
Eight Panther players scored 3-pointers in a mind-boggling first quarter that saw Neosho race to a 26-15 lead. ?We got a little shell-shocked at the start,? head coach Leslie Crane admitted. ?But we kept playing.?
The Red Devils steadied themselves after the blistering start, and slowly seized control. Allen outscored Neosho, 21-7, to take a 3-point lead into halftime, and worked that margin to double digits by the end of the third quarter. Neosho County mounted another furious comeback attempt down the stretch, but this time Allen had all the answers in an 84-70 win.
The victory keeps Allen in second place in the Jayhawk Conference standings at 6-2 (19-4 overall).
?We quit playing defense the fourth quarter in the first game, and we started playing tentatively,? Crane said. ?Tonight, we didn?t do that. We really needed this game to separate us in the standings.?
It was a night of many stars for Allen. Noa Muranaka wound up with 23 points to lead the way, including 9 of 13 from the free throw line. Khassidy Warr followed with a double-double, with 13 points and 14 rebounds. Abigail Alvarez came off the bench to score nine points, while Sarang West scored seven points with three steals. ?Noa had a great game,? Crane said. ?She handled the ball very well. Sarang didn?t have as many points as she normally does, but she had a great floor game for us. When Abby came in, she did good things as well.?
Allen held a 57 to 39 rebound advantage and was sent to the free-throw line a whopping 41 times, hitting 27. Neosho was 6 of 12.
The stats are indicative of Neosho?s frenetic style of play, committing fouls with its pressure defense in the hopes of flustering opponents. Many times it works; Saturday, it did not. The Panthers hit 16 3-pointers for the game, but it took 45 field goal attempts to get that many.
?Their shooting cooled off, and we did a good job with our on-ball pressure. We didn?t give them as many good looks,? Crane said. ?Khamille layed a tough, tough game for us,? she continued. ?What an incredible effort.? Mafalda Chambel came off the bench to dish out our assist. ?She played a different position than she normally does, and she played smart,? Crane said. ?She had a good floor game.?
Photo and Article Credit: Richard Luken