Red Devil women lose to Cardinals

Falling behind 10-2, Allen County Community College’s Red Devil women battled back to within four points with six minutes left in the first half.
Visiting Labette Community College’s Cardinals were up 22-18 after Queona Walker hit a three-pointer for ACCC and Jazmyne Johnson scored on the inside. That was as close as the Red Devils got, losing their fifth straight game 70-55 Wednesday.
“Defensively, we’re not that bad but tonight we stood around and didn’t move our feet, reached a lot which allowed them to go to the free-throw line a lot,” said Sacha Santimano, ACCC women’s head coach.
Labette stretched its lead to 32-22 by halftime. The Cardinals scored half of their first-half points from the foul line. They were 17 of 19 by intermission.
In the second half, Allen County played almost even with Labette. One of the factors was free throw shooting again. The balanced switched to the Red Devils, who were 16 of 24 at the line.
But the Red Devils were never a threat to the Cardinals’ lead. Midway through the second half, Labette was on top 55-32.
Allen County went on a 10-2 run to close it to 57-42 with 7:40 left. Johnson had a basket then Kandace Shields completed a three-point play for Allen  County.
Rackell Goldson, who came off the bench to score 20 points and grab eight rebounds, had a basket and hit two free throws. Caroline DeMague sank one of two free throws at the 7:40 mark.
Labette’s Cierra Emerson nailed a three-pointer and had a layup to bump the Cardinals’ margin back to 20, 62-42.
“One of our biggest problems in the second half was we had no one step up and take a leadership role when things were going south on us,” Santimano said.
“That’s why I sent five in off the bench. They stayed in the  game to the end  because they played as a team.”
Santimano was most unhappy about was the lack of teamwork and leadership on the court by her sophomore players.
“We’re five pennies out there, not a nickel. We’re five fingers and not a fist,” she said. “As a fist, players are working together. We’re not seeing that at all.
“I told our girls they have to figure this out.”
Allen County has one more home game to “figure  it out” before finishing the regular season on the road next week. The Red Devils are 1-14 in Jayhawk Eastern Division play and 3-23 overall.
On Saturday, the Red Devils host Fort Scott Community College (5-10, 8-19). Tipoff is at 6 p.m.
Allen County shot just 26 percent, 16 of 61, from the field. That prompted Santimano to say “our players have to hit 5,000 shots as a team in practice” today.
“They have to figure out how to do that as a team.”
Allen County was 21 of 30 at the free-throw line for the game. Johnson had 10 rebounds while Danielle Best was credited with three steals and Maurissa Shaffer had three assists.
Labette (6-9, 9-18) was led by Emerson with 19 points. Raven Taylor had 17 points. Tesia Danner scored 12 points and Breanna Robinson finished with 10.
The Cardinals shot 33 percent, 21 of 64, from the field and 23 of 29 from the line.
Allen County (22-33—55) (FG/3-pt): Shaffer 1-3-3-5, Walker 0/1-2-4-5, Shields 1-1-0-3, Seick 1-0-2-2, Goldson 5/1-7-3-20, DeMague 0-1-1-1, Best 0-1-1-1, McNeese 2-4-3-8, Johnson 3-2-3-8, Nisbett 1-0-2-2. TOTALS: 14/2-21-22-55.
Labette (32-38—70) (FG/3-pt): Sims 0-4-4-4, Wellman 1-2-2-24, Taylor 3/3-2-4-17, Emerson 4/2-5-2-19, Evans 0-0-2-0, Ellis 0-4-1-4, Tucker 0-0-3-0, Danner 5-2-3-12, Robinson 3-4-3-10. TOTALS: 16/5-23-24-70.