Allen Community College women’s coach Mark James at times has to remind his players the Red Devils are a good basketball team.
“We were a good team tonight,” James said. “We just didn’t make shots.”
A brutal 10-minute field goal drought did in the Red Devil women, who saw visiting Butler County Community College open the second half with an 18-2 run to assume control in a 74-48 defeat.
The Grizzlies outscored Allen 45-22 in the second half.
Halftime seemed to erase all of Allen’s momentum.
The Red Devils started sluggishly. They trailed 18-6 before DaNara Day’s 3-pointer at the 10-minute mark, followed 30 seconds later by Day’s conventional 3-point play which triggered a 9-3 run. Brittney Redmond’s trey with 7:29 left in the half cut the gap to 21-15.
The lead wavered between four and eight points for the Grizzlies the rest of the half before Taylor Seward scored at the buzzer to pull Allen to within 29-26.
But the offense hit the skids from there.
Allen didn’t connect from the field in the second half until Day scored inside with 9:56 left in the contest. By then, Butler’s lead had ballooned to 21, 49-28.
Leslie Ware and Kayla Morton both hit 3-pointers two minutes apart for the Red Devils to pull them within 16, 52-36, at the 6:23 mark, but Allen could get no closer. Butler eradicated any hopes for a comeback by draining 20 of 23 free throws on the night.
Day led all scorers with 18 points, but was the only Red Devil in double figures. Hannah Blackwell pulled in five rebounds. Ebonie Jones, Redmond and Jamie Peel each had two assists. Day and Redmond also had two steals.
Butler County’s Tysia Manual went 6 of 7 from the field to score 17 points, while Ashlee Ivy scored 12.
Butler held a commanding 57 to 37 rebounding advantage and limited Allen to 21 percent shooting from the field. The Red Devils connected on only 7 of 32 3-pointers in the game.
Starting point guard Miracle Davis returned to the lineup for Allen after missing her previous game due to a hand injury. She scored two points in 16 minutes but did not have an assist.
“She’s still pretty sore, but the doctors told us she wouldn’t injure her hand any more by playing,” James said. “And 70 percent of Miracle Davis is still pretty good, but it will be nice for her to get healed up over Thanksgiving.”
Allen (3-4) travels to Rhema College in Tulsa Tuesday evening before returning home one day later to host North Central Missouri.
Butler County (29-45—74)
Allen (26-22—48)
Butler (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Williams 1/1-4-3-9, Bonner 2-1-0-5, Rutledge 1-0-5-2, Manual 6-5-3-17, Bettancourt 2-1-1-5, Howard 0-4-2-4, Ivy 5-2-3-12, Anderson 1/1-0-2-5, Satterlee 4-0-0-8, Whitebread 2-3-1-7. TOTALS: 24/2-20-20-9.
Allen (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Jones 0/2-0-1-6, Saulsberry 0-40-1-4, Davis 1-0-3-2, Morton 0/2-1-1-7, Day 4/1-7-2-18, Flanigan 0-0-2-0, Redmond 0/1-0-3-3, Taiclet 0-0-2-0, Ware 0/1-0-1-3, Seward 1-0-1-2, Blackwell 0-1-3-1, Hall 1-0-3-2. TOTALS: 7/7-13-20-48.
Shooting woes doom Allen
