The Allen Red Devils roared back from an early deficit for a 64-38 blowout victory over the Highland Scotties thanks to strong defense and timely perimeter shooting from sophomore guards Nikki Gear and Juana Rojas.
Allen snapped a two-game losing streak by holding Jayhawk Conference foe Highland to just 13 points in the second half, improving their record to 12-7 overall and 4-2 in conference play.
“The good thing is we don’t have one person scoring a lot of points, but the bad thing is we don’t have one person scoring a lot of points,” Allen coach Leslie Crane said. “It’s pretty spread out. I’m glad Jo-Jo (Rojas) had a good night. Nikki played well and did some great things too.”
After a slow start, Rojas closed the gap with the first of two 3-pointers. A drive to the basket by freshman forward Jalynn Weakley forced the final lead change of the evening as Allen poured on the points from there. Rojas, who tied Gear for the team lead in scoring 14 points, kept Allen ahead with her second 3-pointer, then Gear made it a two-possession contest before halftime with her buzzer-beater behind the arc.
“We made some adjustments. We picked them up at half-court,” Coach Crane said. “We pressured them all over the court. It made a big difference. We held them to four points in the third quarter and nine in the fourth.”
While a 31-25 halftime lead is far from insurmountable at the college level, the Red Devils’ halftime adjustments proved too much for the Scotties.
Allen freshman guards Karizma Johnson and Jennyfer Gros capitalized on the chaos. Johnson posted a team-leading four steals while Gros had three. The real damage came from the result of their steals — multiple easy lay-ins on fast-breaks. “We forced them into 24 turnovers, which is what we needed to do and we got some easy buckets,” Crane said.
Gros also had a team-leading six rebounds, followed by sophomore forward Joniya Lewis’ five boards. She was also Allen’s leader in assists with four, followed by three assists from Lewis. Lewis also posted eight points, tying Weakley for third in team scoring.
Allen will not have long to relish their victory. Kansas City Kansas Community College comes to town Saturday.
The Blue Devils have a score to settle with the Red Devils and may be additionally motivated after Allen banished them from the NJCAA top 25 with a 53-42 victory.
Crane said her team is motivated as well, and have no plans of allowing KCKCC to return the favor.
“They’re going to want some revenge, but we need to make sure we play our game and do what we need to do,” Crane said.
Tip-off for Saturday’s game is at 2 p.m.
