HESSTON — The Allen Community College women and men’s basketball teams earned conference victories at Hesston Community College on Wednesday night.
The Lady Red Devils (12-5; 1-1) earned their first conference win of the season behind some hard-nosed pressured defense, 61-43, while the Allen men (13-5; 2-0) jumped out to an early lead and never let it up in a 74-50 victory.
Women’s Basketball
The Allen ladies got out to an early advantage before their ramped up pressure defense helped hold the lead. The Red Devils scored 21 points off of 17 turnovers for the game.
The Lady Devils led 29-14 at halftime before extending it to 42-25 to end the third.
Hesston tried to keep it close in the second half when they bucketed three’s throughout the final 20 minutes but the Allen defense kept the game around a 20-point advantage the rest of the way.
Allen shot better than Hesston from the floor, 39.6% to 28%, as well as from 3-point land, 28.6% to 25.9%. The Lady Devils’ high pressure defense recorded eight steals while Hesston forced only 11 turnovers.
Naomi Smith led the Lady Red Devils with 13 points, followed by Shade Richardson’s 11 and Clara Romero and Sara Ortiz’s nine points apiece. Smith and Richardson also led on the boards with six and nine rebounds, respectively.
Men’s Basketball
The Allen men continued their hot hands from over the weekend and again got out to an early 8-2 advantage through the opening minutes, a lead they never surrendered.
The Devils’ defense limited Hesston to 17 points in the opening half on 4-of-29 shooting.
The Red Devils led the Larks at halftime, 37-17.
The Hesston men also then made some threes in the second half to cut into the Allen lead, but the Devils heated up and maintained the 20-point margin while putting the game on cruise control. All 15 Devils players saw playing time.
Brayden Thompson and Ahmed Mahgoub led the scoring charge, netting 18 and 15 points, respectively. Chris Dixon also chipped in with eight points while Tanner Meyer had seven. Thompson’s performance saw him knock down 8-of-12 shots from the floor.
Allen was more consistent offensively where they shot 37.7% from the floor, as opposed to Hesston’s 25.8%. The Red Devils also shot the three-pointer at a 26.3% clip, higher than the Larks 25.8% mark from three.
The Red Devils also led the Larks on the boards, outrebounding the home team, 49 to 34. Thompson made a team-high 16 rebounds while Mahgoub added five rebounds.
Allen travels to Highland Community College on Saturday at 3 p.m.
