Patrick Nee isn’t necessarily prone to hyperbole.
But his first reaction to Saturday’s stunning “come-from-behind-from-ahead” 77-75 win over Southeast Nebraska was to speak of his mortality.
“I think this game just took six years off my life,” Nee said afterward.
Allen’s Randy Crosby drilled a 3-pointer from the corner with .6 seconds left on the clock to give Allen the win.
That came after Southeast stormed back from a 27-point deficit to take a 75-74 lead with 10 seconds showing.
Allen called timeout, but a 3-point attempt was blocked out of bounds, giving ACC a final play with 3 seconds showing.
Nee drew up a play designed to create a lane to the basket for a layup on the inbound play. But Southeast’s players didn’t bite, leaving Crosby cutting to the corner for the pass from David Teele.
Crosby didn’t hesitate, sending the Allen bench into a frenzied state of jubilation when the attempt hit nothing but nylon.
“It was nothing I drew up or we discussed,” Nee said. “Randy just made a big-time shot at a big-time time.”
The trey marked a coming out of sorts for the sophomore Bronx, N.Y. native who transferred to Allen this season from Tyler (Texas) Community College, but missed the first week of the season due to injury.
“The more we see him, the more electric big-time plays we’ll see,” Nee predicted. “He gave us a shot in the arm tonight.”
Few would have predicted Saturday’s outcome was anywhere close to in doubt after the Red Devils took a 19-point lead into the break, and then opened the second half with a 10-2 run to lead 59-32.
But the lead came at a cost, primarily in the form of expended energy and foul trouble.
The Coyotes pulled to within 16 by the 10-minute mark, and was within single digits on a Colin Tarver steal and layup with 7 minutes remaining.
“We just got stagnant,” Nee said. “We’re still a young team, and we don’t have the killer instinct to put people away. We got to a 27-point lead and just relaxed. They jumped to a zone and we got really stagnant.”
Allen’s Dirk Johnson and Dante Jackson were both eliminated due to fouls by the time Southeast completed a 19-6 run, capped by Tarver’s free throw with 10 seconds remaining.
