ACC women lose 95-75 to Crowder

Despite having their best offensive output for the season, the Allen Community College women’s basketball team lost to Crowder 95-75 Thursday night.
Taking over coaching duties for the foreseeable future is assistant coach Rachel Janzen. Head coach Katie Mahoney is in Kansas City after giving birth.
“Yeah, it was good. We were talking about penetrating and kicking out to get shots for our open shooters, which are their skills,” Janzen said. “We did that really well, but our defense and block outs are still getting us. We do good at first, then give them a second chance. We need to get better at that.”
The Lady Riders had an early 10-3 lead and Janzen called a timeout. The Red Devils came out shooting much better after that. Allen’s Daria Evans made a running jumpshot near the free throw line and Erika Essman followed with a 3-pointer on the next possession. Crowder led 10-8 with 16:00 left in the half.
Later, four free throws on consecutive possessions by Josie Reilly and Evans closed the gap to within four points at 26-22 in favor of the Lady Riders.
That’s as close at the Red Devils could get. Crowder built a nine point lead throughout the rest of the first half. With 15 seconds left, Essman hit another 3-pointer and the Red Devils went into halftime down 39-33.
Allen’s Rachel Bruce started the second half strong, scoring seven points in four Allen possessions.
But, Crowder wouldn’t give up the lead. The Riders’ Amanda Rowden scored 24 points and Mariana Silva scored 22 points. Crowder had five players score double-digits.
Allen’s Evans scored on two consecutive drives down the court to pull the Red Devils to within four points again. Crowder led 55-51 with 13:00 left in the game. However, the Riders then went on a 10-0 run that Allen didn’t recover from.
The run may have been helped by a couple of calls from the refs. The biggest call came against Allen’s Danielle McElroy — who led the Red Devils with 12 rebounds. She was called for a block in the back, when it appeared she hit only the ball and didn’t touch the opposing player.
Janzen had no comment, other than saying the team needed to play past the unfortunate call.
Crowder took its 10-point run for a larger lead and the win. Allen lost 95-75.
Evans led the team with 22 points and grabbed three rebounds. Essman had 17 points, making five 3-pointers. Reilly scored 16 points, with 12 points coming from the free-throw line.
Allen did win the rebound battle with 43 compared to Crowder’s 41, but had slightly less offensive boards with 13 to the Riders’ 16. Crowder had eight turnovers to Allen’s 15.
The Red Devils (1-9) play at Northern Oklahoma College — Tonkawa today at 2 p.m.
“They are a very similar team, we will have to box them out since they’re bigger than us,” Janzen said. “We are usually outsized, so we need to play hard and get better at every game.”