Leslie Crane has coached some stifling defenses through the years.
But to hold a college opponent to eight points in a half?
“We’ve never done that before,” she said Saturday.
The Red Devils’ stifling defense was dominant early, and again late, after visiting Fort Scott had rallied to tie the score early in the fourth quarter.
But Allen’s defense clamped down once again during a 10-2 run to pull away in a 49-41 victory.
The win lifts the Red Devils to 14-8 overall and 6-3 in Jayhawk Conference play.
Still, Crane notes Allen can do better.
“I’m extremely happy with how well we played defensively,” she said. “It was a physical game. But in the third quarter, we played not to lose instead of relaxing.”
Allen wasn’t exactly humming along on offense in the early going, but some key buckets from Juana Rojas helped push the Red Devils ahead 24-8 at halftime.
Fort Scott was limited to three field goals in the first half, and turned the ball over 11 times against Allen’s frenetic defense.
But the tone shifted in the third quarter, as the Greyhounds’ Sofia Fedina and Haile Edmondson started hitting from downtown.
Fort Scott put together an 18-5 run before Fedina’s 3-pointer in the fourth quarter knotted the score at 31-31.
Allen’s Jalynn Weakley played anything but weakly on Allen’s next possession, as she hit a tough jumper between a pair of Fort Scott defenders to push ACC back on top.
Yolaine Luthi took it from there, getting loose inside for an array of buckets as Allen went ahead 43-33.
Fort Scott never got within six down the stretch.
“Jalynn is just an extremely hard working kid,” Crane said. “We love having her here, because she fits in with what we want to do. She got some of those shots to fall tonight, which was huge.
