Red Devils slam Hesston

It’s obviously way too premature to make any declarations about the upcoming basketball season for Allen Community College.
But if Saturday is any indication, prepare for some excitement.
The Red Devils dazzled the home-opening crowd with an assortment of highlight reel dunks, alley oops and white hot shooting to dispatch visiting Hesston, 100-62.
“It’s just one game,” head coach Andy Shaw said. “But it was a good start.”
Josh Sweet and Courtney Stockard — a pair of Allen’s collection of uber-athletic newcomers — got things started early in the first half.
Sweet’s perfectly placed lob resulted in Stockard’s slam midway through the first half to put the Red Devils on top, 22-10.
They combined two minutes later on an even better play, in which Sweet pulled in a steal in front of the Hesston players, raced to the basket and intentionally tossed the ball off the backboard instead of going in for a layup.
There was a reason. The trailing Stockard was there for the follow slam, eliciting a roar from the supportive crowd.
“The crowd was great,” Shaw said. “That was as loud as I’ve heard it. Hopefully, they had fun and will want to come back.”
Allen led by as many as 19 in the first half until Hesston went into its zone defense.
“We just got sped up,” Shaw said. “We were turning it over trying to do too much.”
The Larks clawed back into the game with a 16-6 run.
Jesse Johnson’s 3-point play with 2 1/2 minutes left in the half pulled Hesston to 43-34.
But Allen’s Jake Ullery scored on a free throw to put the lead back at 10. His putback with 25 seconds left gave the Red Devils a 46-34 lead at intermission.
Hesston stayed with its zone to start the second half until Sweet fed Tyrone Jones on another perfectly placed backdoor lob.
Allen’s lead never dipped below 14 after that.
Raheem Tyner, meanwhile, was active inside and out. He was 2-for-2 from 3-point range, while effectively driving around Lark defenders on the way to a game-high 23 points. He also led Allen with five rebounds.
Meanwhile, Alex Miller shot 5 of 9 from the field (3 of 5 from 3-point land) to score 18.
Ben Uno scored 12, while Sweet and Stockard scored 11 apiece. Sweet narrowly missed a double-double with his nine assists.
Jesse Johnson’s 22 points led Hesston. He was the only Lark in double figures.
The only suspense late in the game was whether the Red Devils would hit the century mark.
Cody Sluder took care of that with a 3-pointer with 1:25 left in the game and a free throw with 7 seconds remaining to draw one last roar from the crowd.
Allen shot a scorching 62 percent (33 of 53) from the field and hit 10 of 19 3-pointers. Hesston shot 53 percent (21 of 39) from the field, but went just 2 of 13 from beyond 3-point range. Allen held a 24 to 19 edge in rebounds.
“We’re pretty athletic, and Hesston’s style of play kind of fed into what we were trying to do,” Shaw said. “They like to get out in transition and try  to score quickly, too. They’re a good team over there. We have to play them again Dec. 7 at their place. I’m sure it will be a different game. Now, we have to try and get refocused because we don’t have a lot of time to celebrate this win. We still have a lot to work on.”
Indeed, Allen returns to action tonight at home against Johnson County. Tip-off in the Allen gymnasium is at 7 o’clock.
Hesston (33-29—62)
Allen (46-54—100)
Hesston (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Larkin 0/1-0-2-3, Schilling 4-1-0-9, Palmer 1-5-2-7, Smoot 2/1-1-2-8, Davis 2-3-1-7, Johnson 8-6-3-22, Cardenas 1-1-3-3, Tanner 1-1-3-3. TOTALS: 19/2-18-16-62.
Allen (FG/3pt-FT-F-TP): Keiswetter 2-0-4-4, Jones 3-1-3-7, Tyner 5/2-7-1-23, Sweet 2/1-4-1-11, Miller 2/3-5-1-18, Uno 2/2-2-3-12, Sluder 2/1-1-4-8, Stockard 3/1-2-3-11, Ullery 1-1-1-3. TOTALS: 23/10-24-24-100.