Monday night represented one last hurrah for this Allen Community College men’s basketball team in front of their home fans. With a packed house, they were able to down their rival Neosho Community College, 74-69.
“Coach told us just to go out there and have fun,” Allen guard Darnell Jones-Bowie said.
Guard Jermaine Long agreed.
“We went out with a bang,” Long said.
The Red Devils fell behind by 12 points in the first half as their star Long continued to struggle shooting the ball.
Allen’s other usual starting guard Jones-Bowie was able pick up some of the scoring load and bring the team back to where they took a lead late in the first half. Jones-Bowie scored 13 of his 22 points in the first half.
“Neosho went on a lot of runs and without my leadership, I feel like we would have lost the game,” Jones-Bowie said. “I just tried to encourage every possession, keep encouraging my guys.”
Allen entered the halftime locker room trailing 39-37.
Despite it being “Sophomore Night,” it was a freshman that stole the show in the second half.
DaRon Mims scored 11 of his game-high 23 points in the second half. He shot 6-of-10 from the field and 9-of-12 from the free throw line in the game.
“I’m extremely proud of DaRon,” Jones-Bowie said. “He’s been helping us all year. Anytime I or Jermaine had been struggling, he stepped up.”
Neosho took a 63-58 lead with six and a half minutes left with a big dunk from Neosho guard Marc Moon. Little-used post Kyle Hultgren answered for Allen with a pair for foul shots.
“He does all the dirty work,” Allen coach Andy Shaw said of Hultgren.
Long added a pair of free throws with just under five minutes left. Neosho pushed the lead back up to three on the following possession.
On the next Allen trip up the floor, Jones-Bowie calmly dribbled the ball up the floor and it appeared like he might be trying to slow the game down, but then he quickly pulled up and fired a deep three with plenty of time on the shot clock.
“Jermaine was struggling all night,” Jones-Bowie said. “Me, playing off of him, I felt like I should step up and I felt like I could make it.”
