Allen Community College got the final Word in another nailbiter Monday evening.
The Red Devils’ Freddie Word scored 24 points, none bigger than his short jumper from the lane with 3.2 seconds remaining, the final points in an 83-82 thriller over visiting Independence.
“I was trying to be aggressive,” Word said. “I knew the team depends on me. I had to be aggressive for the team.”
The bucket was the final salvo in a wild and woolly contest that saw Independence erase a 10-point deficit in the final minutes, and take the lead on Jonathon Mogbo’s 3-point play with 21 seconds remaining.
The bucket gave the Pirates an 82-81 lead, allowing ACC time for one final possession.
Nick Whittick brought the ball up the court, and passed off to Word, who curled around the top of the lane, juked Mogbo with a ball fake, then floated in the short jumper with 3.2 seconds left.
“We wanted to get the ball in his hands,” Allen head coach Andy Shaw said. “He got to his sweet spot. He got a shot fake and knocked it in.”
The Pirates had time for one final shot with a baseball pass to midcourt.
Allen’s Ahmed Mahgoob narrowly missed getting the steal, but not enough to prevent Indy’s Ke’various Taylor from catching the pass, then finding teammate Shamman Artis for an open look from 3-point range on the right side.
“I was thinking ‘oh, no no. Not again,’” Shaw said, as Artis put up the shot.
But the shot bounced off the back rim as the buzzer sounded.
Monday’s contest marked the second straight one-point win for ACC, both coming on last-second shots.
“We have lost several games very similar to that, where we’ve had leads late in games and it’s always the other team that stepped up and made the final shot,” Shaw noted. “To get two in a row, by one at the buzzer, is not the way I prefer to break that streak, but I’ll take it. We’ll take the win, no matter how we can get it.”
The game was filled with wild momentum swings for both teams.
Allen erased a 39-35 deficit in the waning seconds of the first half with a 10-0 run, capped by Shaikim Jenks’ buzzer-beating trey to give the Red Devils a 45-39 lead.
But Independence put together a 9-1 run early in the second half to knot the score at 48-48.
The game see-sawed back and forth from there until Jenks scored on a drive to trigger an 19-6 Red Devil run. Word hit a pair of 3-pointers, followed by Tyren Shelley’s trey from well beyond the arc to give ACC a 76-66 lead with 6 minutes remaining.
It took Independence less than 40 seconds to slice the gap in half.
Artis drilled a 3-pointer for the Pirates with 3:11 left to cut ACC’s lead to 78-76. Tim Dalger went 3-4 from the line with 2:40 remaining after a technical foul was whistled on Allen’s Amdadou Traore to give the Pirates a 79-78 lead.
Cedric Rollerson Scored with 1:12 left to give the lead back to Allen with 1:12 left, but missed the follow-up free throw. Traore went 1-2 from the line with 35 seconds remaining to extend Allen’s advantage to 81-79, leading to the late theatrics.
Word scored 17 of his team-high 24 points in the second half, while Jenks wound up with 18.
Traore pulled in a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Rollerson added 10 points and four assists
Dalger scored 27 and Madison More 21 for Independence, which entered the game having just knocked off Coffeyville, the second ranked NJCAA team in the country.
“It was a typical Jayhawk East game,” Shaw said. “There’s a lot of history between the two schools. It seems like every time we play it’s a good one. Hopefully, we’re starting to build momentum at the right time of year.”
Allen has a quick turnaround, part of a six-game in 15-day stretch to end the regular season.
The Red Devils will host Neosho County Wednesday.
Independence (39-43—82) (FG/3pt): Artis 3/2-0-0-12, Monroe 5-11-5-21, Etienne 1-1-0-3, Mogbo 3-1-3-7, Dalger 7/2-7-4-27, Taylor 1-0-2-2, Alexander 2-2-2-6, Paul 0-0-2-0, Cash 0-1-0-1. TOTALS: 22/4-26-18-82.
Allen (45-38—83) (FG/3pt); Jenks 3/3-3-1-18, Rollerson 3-4-5-10, Whittick 1-0-1-2, Word 6/3-3-2-24, Wright 0/1-0-1-2-3, Shelley 0/2-3-2-9, Traore 5-4-3-14, Mahgoub 0/1-0-2-3. TOTALS: 18/10-17-20-83.
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