Her young team isn’t where Allen Community College head coach Leslie Crane wants it to be, at least not yet.
That may mean bad news for the Red Devil women’s future opponents, because Allen keeps winning, anyways.
Allen capped a lopsided weekend Friday and Saturday at the Red Devil Classic, first steamrolling visiting McPherson’s junior varsity 66-36 on Friday.
And then after travel issues prevented Oklahoma Wesleyan from getting to Iola for Saturday’s game, the Red Devils found another opponent in Independence Community College.
That did nothing to slow down ACC’s offense, however.
The Red Devils zipped out to a 12-0 lead to start the game and never looked back in a 78-49 victory.
The wins keep Allen perfect at 6-0 to start the season, but with Crane still not satisfied.
“We let them in the lane too much,” Crane said of Independence. “They did everything under the glass. We didn’t protect that. We’ve gotta do a better job in those situations.”
Sure enough, when Independence got the ball inside, the Pirates usually scored. Indy hit 9 of its 12 field goal attempts after intermission, thus keeping the game from becoming a total laugher.
But Allen’s ball pressure elsewhere often made it difficult for Independence to set up its offense to begin with.
Red Devil sophomore guard Mafalda Chambel was particularly effective at disrupting pretty much anything Independence tried to establish with her on-ball pressure.
“She’s a one-man press,” Crane laughed.
Chambel had four of Allen’s 16 steals as the Red Devils forced 31 turnovers against Independence.
“We did some good things,” Crane said. “We kept them under 50, and we could have kept them lower. But that’s me being greedy.”
Allen cooled after its blistering start, as Independence rattled off seven straight points to pull to within 12-7.
