Cavaliers get defensive to top ACC

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Sports

January 31, 2013 - 12:00 AM

It was not basketball for the faint of heart Wednesday.
Allen Community College’s women hosted Johnson County in a defensive slug-fest, with neither team able to do much offensively until the visiting Cavaliers began connecting from downtown.
Johnson County — the second ranked team in NJCAA Division II — hit four 3-pointers in the second half, enough to maintain a safe working margin to defeat Allen 51-37.
The loss drops the Red Devils to 11-10 overall and 4-5 in Kansas Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division play. Allen continues its toughest stretch of the conference season Saturday at Highland. Saturday’s tilt will be the third of four against the top four squads in the Eastern Division standings.
Despite the loss, Red Devil coach Mark James was encouraged.
“We were able to get good looks at the basket whenever we wanted,” James said. “Those shots just didn’t fall tonight. A lot of that has to do with Johnson. When you play them, you know they’re going to guard you. But I think we guarded them pretty well, too.”
The first half was particularly defense-oriented.
Neither team did much offensively through the first 10 minutes of the game.
Allen’s Miracle Davis drained a 3-pointer at the 9:42 mark of the first half to trail 8-7 when Johnson County rattled off a 9-0 run over the next 5 minutes.
Jamie Peel ended the Red Devil drought with a 3-pointer with 3 minutes remaining, followed in short order by a pair of baskets by Davis, to close Johnson County’s lead to 17-14.
Juanita Robinson connected on a jumper at the buzzer to extend the lead to 19-14 at intermission.
Davis ended a second-half scoring lull with a bucket to close the gap to three, 19-16.
That was as close as Allen could get.
The Cavaliers’ Tineka O’Neal drained a 3-pointer with about 9 minutes left in the game to put Johnson’s lead in double digits, 35-24, followed by a steal and pair of free throws by DaShawn Harden.
The Red Devils twice cut the lead to eight, the final time with Kendra Taiclet’s 3-pointer at the 5:43 mark, but Allen managed only a single field goal after that, a DaNara Day basket with 1:20 remaining. It was the only field goal of the night for Day (3 points), Allen’s leading scorer at 14 points per game.
Allen struggled mightily from the field, hitting 13 of 60 field goals, 22 percent, and a frigid 3 of 24 from 3-point range.
Davis was the team’s lone offensive stalwart, pouring in a game-high 17 points. Ware scored seven points, with two steals. Day and Hannah Blackwell each had five rebounds..
Kariel Hutt scored 12 points for Johnson County, the only Cavaliers player in double figures. Hutt also had a game-high 15 rebounds. Juanita Robinson added eight points and 13 rebounds.
The Cavaliers improved to 20-1 on the season and 9-1 in conference action.
Johnson Co. (19-32—51)
Allen (14-23—37)
Johnson County (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Gee 0-0-1-0, Harden 1/1-2-3-7, Hutt 2-2-2-6, O’Neal 2/2-2-2-12, Robinson 4-0-2-8, Short 1-0-1-2, Brisbane 4-0-1-8, Kendall 1/2-0-3-8. TOTALS: 15/5-6-15-51.
Allen (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Jones 1-0-1-2, Davis 6/1-2-4-17, Day 1-1-2-3, Redmond 0-0-1-0, Peel 0/1-0-0-3, Taiclet 0/1-0-0-3, Ware 2-3-1-7, Seward 0-0-1-0, Blackwell 0-0-2-0, Hall 0-2-2-2. TOTALS: 10/3-8-14-37.

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