Sometimes a single player has a performance so dominant that the opposing team can’t do anything but sit back and hope to survive.
That was the situation that the Allen County women found themselves in Wednesday night during their 93-74 loss to Cloud County.
Freshman Lady T-Bird Scout Frame showed the Lady Devils no mercy, scoring 40 points on 15-20 shooting and grabbing 12 rebounds.
“I give her all the credit in the world,” Allen County head coach Todd Buchanan said. “I hugged her after the game and told her that she was the female version of Larry Bird. That’s exactly what she looked like tonight. She literally tore us apart by herself.”
The Lady Devils hung with Cloud County early, trailing by six after the first quarter. They kept the deficit below double-digits for a good part of the second quarter before Cloud went on a run to push their lead to 14 by the half.
“We lost our way,” Buchanan said. “I thought this was a winnable game for us but it got way out of hand early. It was a lackluster effort collectively.”
From there, the Lady Devils didn’t get within 10. Seemingly every time they looked poised to make a run, it would be Frame who got in their way.
“I think sometimes we get so frustrated,” Buchanan said. “We are real quick to point fingers. I tell them not to get bitter but to get better and work to get better together. Chemistry-wise we’ve gone back to some of the negative stuff.”
Alecia Verge and Logan Bonner each led the way with 15 points while Kamri Summons had 14.
“As good as they were at times they weren’t good enough and it was certainly too little, too late,” Buchanan said. “It’s extremely disappointing and frustrating. We’ve proved that we can play with anyone in the conference and to show up today like we did is very disappointing.”
With the loss, the Lady Devils move to 4-12 and 2-10 in league play. Allen County will start a two-game road trip on Saturday with 1-14 and 0-12 Pratt.
“I need them to be strong,” Buchanan said. “I really challenged them in the post-game talk. I want them to bring that “lunch pail” mentality. They need to blue-collar it up and get ready to go back to work. That’s all I know.”
PHOTO: Lady Devils freshman Jakira Wilson takes the ball down the court alongside Cloud County’s Kelsi Mueller. Allen County lost 93-74. REGISTER/TIMOTHY EVERSON
