The Allen Community College men’s team has proven this season that they can play with anyone, but Saturday’s 95-82 loss to Hutchinson Community College — the nation’s No. 2 ranked team — ended up just becoming another near miss.
The undefeated Blue Dragons jumped out to a 12-2 lead in the game’s opening minutes and appeared to be set to run away with the game, but Allen responded and from that point until the game’s final 54 seconds, Allen outscored Hutchinson 80-76.
“I told my guys that for 30 minutes they went toe to toe with the No. 2 team in the nation,” Allen coach Andy Shaw said. “For those 30 minutes, I thought we were probably a little bit better.”
The Red Devils lost a five-point game against the Jayhawk Conference’s second-place team Barton Community College earlier this year and have had several close losses now against their top rivals in route to a frustrating 4-7 conference record.
Despite keeping the game close, the Red Devils were never able to get over the hump against the Dragons and take a lead. Hutchinson led the game from start to finish.
Near the end of the first half, Hutchinson built their lead to a game-high advantage at 37-21 with Shakur Juiston’s basket.
Allen sophomore DaRon Mims cut the lead back to 10 points with five points to end the half and go into the locker room with a 41-31 score.
“We kept fighting and cut the lead to 10 at halftime and from there it was back and forth, back and forth,” Shaw said.
The lead moved between 8 and 12 points for most of the second half, but with under two minutes left, Allen was finally able to substantially cut into the Hutchinson lead.
The Dragons had an 87-74 lead, but Quentin Blaue hit a pair of free throws and Mims followed that with a basket to cut the margin to single digits with 1:24 left in the game.
Allen point guard E.J. Garnes hit two free throws with 1:21 left after stealing the inbounds pass from Hutchinson and the margin was sliced to 87-80.
After a Hutchinson free throw, Mims hit two foul shots and got Allen within two possessions at 88-82 with 1:08 left.
The Dragons were able to finish the game’s final sixty seconds in the fashion expected out of an undefeated No. 2 team in the country.
“They are extremely talented and when times got tough, they stepped up and made shots,” Shaw said. “We could never make enough stops to make a run for ourselves.”
Hutchinson outscored Allen 7-0 in the final minute with Juiston scoring five of his game-high 24 points to seal the victory. He also had a game-high 14 rebounds.
“Juiston was a monter,” Shaw said. “Whenever they missed, it seemed like they got it and put it back.”
Hutchinson had four other players score in double figures with Devonte Bandoo scoring 15 points, J.J. Rhymes having 14 points and James Conley and Samajae Haynes-Jones each scoring 13 points.
Allen sophomore Jah-Kobe Womack had 21 points to lead Allen.
“Jah-Kobe really stepped up and had a good game,” Shaw said.
Mims had 16 points and Garnes had a double-double with 13 points and 10 assists.
“E.J. played well and played pretty much the entire game with 38 minutes,” Shaw said.
Blaue had 11 points on only four shot attempts.
“They did a good job of limiting him,” Shaw said. “You could tell they were focused on him and not going to let him have a big night.”
‘TOE TO TOE’: Red Devils hang tough, but fall to nation’s No. 2 ranked squad
