Allen Community College sophomore big-man Ithello Cross got Wednesday’s win over the nation’s No. 13-ranked team and Allen’s arch-rival Neosho County. Cross started the night with two alley-oop dunks in the opening minutes. He put the finishing touch on the 86-69 thrashing of the Panthers with another dunk coming down the middle of the lane with under a minute left.
“It was huge,” Cross said of his early dunks. “Whenever something like that happens, it is a great feeling and I am glad I was able to make the plays.”
According to Allen coach Andy Shaw, Cross’s strong start provided a catalyst for how the rest of the game would go.
“It energized us and it energized our fans,” Shaw said. “That was big for us to get some early momentum.”
What happened after was pure domination by a Red Devil team that was looking to make a statement. It certainly did that.
Sophomore DaRon Mims led the team in scoring with 24 points off the bench. He and sophomore guard Shon Sanders gave the Panther defense headaches all night with their deep range. Sanders finished with 16 points and the pair combined to go 6-of-13 from beyond the arc.
“It feels good,” Mims said. “We knew they are No. 13 in the nation, so it would be a tough job, but we came out with energy and I feel like everyone was going on full cylinders.”
The Panthers were able to stay close with the Red Devils until the end of the first half when Sanders led a 10-2 run with seven points to open up a 38-28 halftime lead.
“Coach always says that when you get up by ten, you have to keep trying to extend the lead and push it up to 15 or 20 and that is what we did,” Mims said. “Basketball is a game of runs, so we just knew that we needed to keep running and doing what we were doing to get the win.”
Neosho was able to hang around in the game early in the second half and even got within three points for a brief moment before Mims and his teammates opened the game back up. A personal eight-point run by the sophomore swingman helped Allen open up a 70-52 lead midway through the second half and from then on it was just a matter of running out the clock.
“He comes off the bench, but he plays starter minutes,” Shaw said of Mims. “He was very efficient… He made some big baskets for us and I thought at times, especially late, he was a calming presence for our team.”
The Panthers tried to get under the Red Devils’ skin several times with hard fouls — including a flagrant foul — but Allen stayed above it and happily cruised to its statement win. Neosho County also added a technical foul late in the game, but the Red Devils’ cooler heads prevailed, both by not escalating the situation and by winning on the scoreboard.
UP NEXT
Allen will travel to Colby Community College on Saturday for a road test and then they will return home on Tuesday to try and knock off another nationally-ranked team when Garden City comes to town.
“We are moving on,” Cross said. “Our next game is Saturday and we are already ready to go.”
