Red Devils fall in OT

As far as heart-breakers go — and there have been some doozies this season — Saturday’s overtime defeat at the hands of Cowley College may have been the toughest of them all for Allen Community College.
Cowley’s 70-64 overtime win came despite a remarkable performance by Allen’s Andrew Rountree, including a banked in 3-pointer with four-tenths of a second left in regulation to force overtime.
“This is a hard one to accept because we know the caliber of team Cowley is,” Red Devil coach Andy Shaw said. “They’re so disciplined, and they don’t make mistakes to beat themselves.”
A win would have been a big confidence booster for the Red Devils, who remain winless in Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division play.
“Now we just have to regroup,” Shaw said.
Allen didn’t make many mistakes against Cowley, and certainly hit a number of clutch shots from start to finish, but the Tigers’ 1-3-1 zone put the Red Devils off kilter enough to make up an early 14-point deficit, and eventually take control in overtime.
“We hadn’t seen Cowley run a 1-3-1 before, and it hurt us,” Shaw said. “It took away some of the good looks that we’d been getting.”
Cowley also displayed a bit of poise in overtime. The Tigers never flinched after Rountree’s game-tying trey. James Milliken started the extra period with a 3-pointer, followed shortly thereafter with a traditional 3-point play by Dominique McCoy. Cowley ended the game by hitting 8 of 12 free throws to seal the win.
Meanwhile, Cowley’s zone defense kept the Red Devil offense stuck in neutral. The Red Devils connected on only one field goal in the extra frame, a basket by Tray Fountain with 19 seconds left. By then, the Tigers’ lead had grown to 68-60.
Allen’s Bryce Schippers narrowly missed a 3-pointer from the left wing with about 40 seconds left in the overtime that would have cut the deficit to three, but the shot bounced off the side rim.

THE RED Devils opened the game like gang-busters. Four of the five starters connected from the field in the game’s first eight minutes. Schippers came off the bench to drain a 3-pointer with 10 minutes left in the first half to give the Red Devils a 17-3 lead. Alex Keiswetter’s bucket with 7 1/2 minutes left pushed Allen’s lead to 17, 24-7.
McCoy spearheaded Cowley’s response, scoring eight points during a 14-6 run that closed Allen’s lead to 30-21 at halftime.
Coincidentally, Rountree was the only Red Devil starter to go scoreless in the first half.
He made up for it after intermission, scoring 10 of ACC’s first 12 points after halftime.
The Tigers closed the gap to 46-45 when Rountree’s putback re-established a three-point cushion. Seth Walden followed shortly thereafter with a 3-pointer to give ACC a 51-45 lead.
Rountree’s clock-beating jumper with 4:11 remaining put Allen on top 53-48.
The Tigers responded with eight straight points. Milliken scored with 1:24 on the clock to give Cowley its first lead of the game 54-53. His two free throws with 19 seconds remaining pushed Cowley’s lead to 56-53, setting up Rountree’s buzzer-beater from the top of the key.
Rountree scored all of his team-high 19 points after halftime, to go with nine rebounds, four assists and a block.
Cameron Blue followed with eight points, nine boards, three assists and four blocks.
Ben Uno scored seven points before fouling out. Keiswetter and Walden scored six each.
McCoy scored 22 to pace Cowley. Milliken added 16.
Allen (4-16 overall and 0-8 in Jayhawk Conference Eastern Division) resumes play at home Wednesday against Johnson County.
Cowley (21-35-14—70)
Allen (30-26-8—64)
Cowley (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Milliken 4/1-5-2-16, Fennell 1-2-2-4, Goodlow 0/2-2-1-8, Vozzola 0-0-1-0, Steadman 1-3-0-5, McGrew 3-3-4-9, Evans 0-4-3-4, McKoy 8-6-2-22. TOTALS: 18/3-25-16-70.
Allen (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Rountree 7/1-2-4-19, Burnes 1-2-2-4, Wesley 0-0-2-0, Fountain 2-0-4-4, Schippers 0/1-2-4-5, Uno 2/1-0-5-7, Keiswetter 3-0-1-6, Barnette 1/1-0-1-5, Blue 4-0-1-8, Walden 0/2-0-1-6. TOTALS: 20/6-6-25-64.