The Allen Men's Basketball team earned a regular season sweep over rival Neosho County on Saturday afternoon with a 71-64 win over the Panthers. The Red Devils got off to a nice start as Brayden Thompson was able to use his size advantage to score in the paint over the Panthers. Thompson also had several offensive rebounds for second chance points throughout the first half. The Red Devils were cold from the 3 point line in the first half as they finished 0-7 from beyond the arc. Allen led by double figures most of the first half, and took a 10 point advantage into the locker room at halftime 32-22.
The lead hovered around 10 points for the beginning of the second half, but midway through the half the Red Devils pushed the lead up to as many as 17 points. The Panthers would not back down, and went on a big run of their own as they got easy points at the rim, and several free-throw attempts to claw back into the game. The Panthers cut the Red Devil lead to just 3 point with a few minutes remaining in the game. Near the one minute mark Allen held on to a 6 point lead, and got a few defensive stops which caused the Panthers to foul to stop the clock. Allen would miss 4 straight free-throw to keep the game interesting, but fortunately the Allen defense came away with a few stops to ice the game at 71-64.
Brayden Thompson had a monster night with 24 points, and 17 rebounds for a big double-double. Thompson actually had a double-double at halftime with 18 points and 10 rebounds in the first 20 minutes of play. Ed Wright was the only other Red Devil in double figures with 15 points. Cedric Rollerson finished with 9 points, 3 assists, and 3 steals.
This win pushed the win total to 20 on the season, as the Red Devils are now 20-5 on the season, and Allen is also still in 1st place in the KJCCC at 9-1. Allen was ranked #15 nationallly in the last NJCAA poll. Next Allen will travel to Fort Scott on Wednesday night for a matchup with the Greyhounds.