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Fast second-half start not enough
This time around, Fort Scott Community College's men didn't let a not-so-great start keep them down. But even after a furious second half which began with the Greyhounds making 10 of their first 11 field-goal attempts, FSCC went down to its seventh consecutive loss Saturday, a 79-75 decision to Allen County at Arnold Arena in Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division play.
The 'Hounds (0-5 in the East, 5-12 overall) were down 20-12 after Allen County's 12-3 run early in the second half but were able to get back within three, 36-33, before Perry Petty's buzzer-beating jumper as time ran out in the first half.
The Greyhounds couldn't miss a shot early in the second half, but were still just trading scores with the Red Devils (3-2, 10-7) as Allen County took advantage of some turnovers. Even after making its first five shots of the half, Fort Scott was still down 50-43 with 15:41 remaining in the contest.
Then Allen's Tim Miser hit a three-point shot and Petty followed with a layup to extend the lead to 10 points. But the Greyhounds' hot shooting finally began to pay off as they went on an 8-0 run, with six points from Arsenio Williams, to get within four with 13:20 to go.
Petty spotted up for a three-pointer to make Allen's lead 65-59 with 6:56 to go. But the 'Hounds scored five in a row with Williams' stickback of a teammate's miss cutting the deficit to one with 5:11 remaining.
Allen County got the lead back up to six after scoring the next five. The 'Hounds would never take the lead but played well enough -- even after Williams fouled out with just over 2 1/2 minutes to go -- to be in it down to the last second.
Kolby Hopkins took a long inbound pass from Jeremy Sutton and managed to hit a three-pointer from the right wing to cut the lead to 77-75 with 7/10ths of a second remaining. The clock stops on all made shots in the final minute, so Fort Scott was able to foul on the inbound pass. However, Christian Hill made both free throws for the Devils.
Petty led Allen County with 26 points before having to come out of the game after a fluky leg injury he suffered while he was boxing out on the front end of a one-and-one with 1:17 to go. Ironically, he made that free throw but was hurt enough that he couldn't stay in the game to attempt the back end of the one-and-one.
Miser added 11 points for Allen County. Meanwhile, Williams led Fort Scott with 22 points. Brandon Dougherty scored 18 points, reaching double figures for the second straight time after doing so for the first time in his college career with a 20-point effort against Neosho County Wednesday night. Hopkins and Kyle Grant each scored 11 points.
The Greyhounds shot 47 percent from the field on the night, going 28 of 59. The Devils shot 41 percent on 26 of 64, which includes a nine-of-31 effort from behind the three-point line.
Fort Scott dominated the boards, 51-25. Williams and Hopkins had eight boards each for the Greyhounds while Dougherty and Josh Sutton each had six. Allen County had only eight rebounds in the second half and no Devil had more than six in the game.
The 'Hounds turned the ball over 21 times to just 11 for Allen County.
Fort Scott is now on its second-longest losing streak in a decade, one game longer than a six-game slide during mid-January three years ago. It will take a while, though, to reach the longest streak in recent times -- a skid in 1997-98, which covered the first 17 conference games of a season that ended with an 8-22 record.
Fort Scott will look to break that streak tonight when it travels to Johnson County for a 7 p.m. tip-off in division play. Kansas City Kansas will be in town for a 7 p.m. tip Wednesday and Cowley, ranked No. 12 in the most recent NJCAA Division I poll, will visit at 4 p.m. Saturday.
NOTES -- Coming into the week, Williams was the second-leading scorer in the Jayhawk Conference at 21.1 points per game. Labette's Mekaile Reed was the leader at 21.4 points per game. Williams was also fourth in rebounds at 9.7 per game, which was second among Eastern Division players....
ALLEN COUNTY: Hill 1-3 2-2 4, Putman 2-5 1-3 8, Braggs 2-4 0-0 5, Miser 2-5 5-7 11, Stinnett 0-0 0-0 0, Scrivner 2-2 2-2 7, T.Petty 2-8 1-2 5, Nelson 1-6 1-2 3, P.Petty 10-18 4-5 26, Komadinic 2-9 2-2 7, Sloanes 2-4 0-0 4. TOTALS: 26-64 18-25 79.
FORT SCOTT: : Kinnie 1-4 3-4 5, Je.Sutton 1-3 3-6 2, Dougherty 7-15 3-6 18, Grant 3-5 4-4 11, Hopkins 5-6 0-0 11, Williams 10-12 2-3 22, Brown 0-4 0-0 0, Jo.Sutton 1-4 0-0 2, Bland 0-1 1-2 1, Curry 0-5 3-6 3. TOTALS: 28-59 16-25 75.
Halftime: Allen County, 38-33.
Three-point field goals: Allen County 9-31 (Putman 2-5, Miser 2-5, P.Petty 2-6, Scrivner 1-1, Braggs 1-3, Komadinic 1-3, Hill 0-2, T.Petty 0-3, Nelson 0-3), Fort Scott 3-9 (Grant 1-1, Hopkins 1-1, Dougherty 1-3, Brown 0-2, Curry 0-2).
Total fouls: Allen County 19, Fort Scott 21. Fouled out: T.Petty, Williams, Curry. Technical fouls: none.
Rebounds: Allen County 25 (Nelson 6), Fort Scott 51 (Hopkins 8, Williams 8). Assists: Allen County 13 (P.Petty 4), Fort Scott 9 (Hopkins 3). Turnovers: Allen County 11, Fort Scott 21. Steals: Allen County 11 (Miser 5), Fort Scott 3 (Grant, Hopkins, Bland). Blocked shots: Allen County 3 (Sloanes 2), Fort Scott none.