Long drops career-high 41 points in win over Coffeyville

“Shooters shoot.”
This is one of the oldest cliches in basketball. So normal if it came out of the mouth of Jermaine Long, Allen Community College’s starting guard, it would be met with smiles and a bit of chuckling from those near enough to hear it
When Long said those words after Wednesday’s 94-85 victory over Coffeyville, it was met with understanding nods.
“Coach says ‘shooters shoot’ so I kept shooting,” Long said. “If I hit one, I felt like I could hit another one. I kept hitting them until then I finally missed, but he just said don’t let that miss get you discouraged, so I kept shooting and they kept falling.”
That was because Long had just scored a career-high 41 points on just 21 shots. The smooth righty from New Orleans converted 10 of his 16 attempts from three.
“He put together a complete game,” Allen coach Andy Shaw said. “He put together a complete game and was able to will us to a victory.”
Long was in a ‘zone’ from the moment the game tipped off. He and his teammates raced out to a quick lead against the Ravens and never looked back.
“I just came out and tried to put the team on my back, that’s all,” Long said despite a laugh from his fellow guard Darnell Jones-Bowie as he said it.
Allen built a 54-38 halftime lead. It stayed at double digits until the game’s closing moments. The win avenged a 10-point loss to Coffeyville in January.
Long’s range continued to grow as the game continued as he continued to sizzle from behind the arc.
“They know that I let them play pretty free,” Shaw said. “Seemed like he was making everything. He finally missed one and he might have been closer to half-court than the three-point line.”
Long’s teammates also saw that their leader was on fire and they continued to get the ball to him in positions that he could score.
“A lot of my teammates feed off me and my energy,” Long said. “So I just tried to keep it going the whole game and not just the first half and I called for it, they swung it to me and I knocked down the open shot.”
The 6-3 sophomore didn’t let his stat line end with just points. He also dished out a team-leading six assists and only committed a pair of turnovers.
“They tried to key on me after I got going,” Long said. “So I tried to get my teammates going.”
Long’s back court running mate, Jones-Bowie was one of the main benefactors. Jones-Bowie scored 16 points while shooting 6 for 9 from the field.
“Darnell really got into the paint and finished well at the rim scoring through some contact,” Shaw said.
The 6-foot sophomore filled up the stat-sheet on his own. In addition to his 16 points, he added five assists, three rebounds, a steal and a block.
The Raiders will return to action on Saturday when they take on Ottawa’s junior varsity squad before returning home and returning to conference play to host Pratt Community College.
“We can’t settle,” Long said. “This is definitely a confidence-builder but we can’t settle. We still got to work.”
Allen will be looking to avenge a Jan. 20 97-76 loss at Pratt.