Allen Community College has practiced this situation over and over again.
Down by just three points and with the ball, the Red Devils ran an inbound play with four seconds on the clock.
Allen flooded the floor with shooters including star guards Jermaine Long and Darnell Jones-Bowie. They threw the ball into Long as Pratt came with a double team.
Long glanced to the left and saw his backcourt-mate break open off of the attention that Long was drawing.
The pass spun towards Jones-Bowie and it appeared that the sophomore was going to have just enough time to step into a three from the top of the key to tie it, but the ball was just low.
“It ended up being a busted play,” Allen coach Andy Shaw said. “At the same time the ball bounced and we had a chance at a wide-open shot.”
The pass went through the hands of Jones-Bowie and bounced off his knee before rolling to a Pratt defender as the buzzer sounded.
“I was so anxious to shoot it,” Jones -Bowie said. “I wasn’t expecting it to hit my leg like that.”
The game was final, 84-81.
For Allen it marked yet another near miss against an elite team in the Jayhawk conference.
“We got to keep competing,” Jones-Bowie said. “It is like we have a mental lapse when other teams make their run.”
Allen had trouble containing Pratt’s Isaiah Bailey all night. Bailey played through the heckles of the Allen crowd and scored 25 points while grabbing 10 rebounds.
“He had a great game, got a double-double,” Shaw said. “He made some shots that I didn’t see on film.”
Bailey also had a pair of thunderous dunks in the game.
“He is a handful,” Jones-Bowie said. “He is a great player and he just kept putting the pressure on us every time. There were a couple possessions where he thought he had the mismatch and his coach just let him go. He capitalized.”
Brian Wright also scored 14 points, while Andrew Newbil and Byron Smith each knocked in 12 points.
