Allen teams start season with sweep

By DAVID SEELEY Special Correspondent

ALLEN — Fresh off the high school football successful season, the Allen High School basketball seasons got started in grand fashion Thursday night.

The Mustangs had relatively little trouble in knocking off the Maud Tigers 86-42 to begin the 2009-2010 campaign.

The Lady Mustangs also won in a rout, beating the Lady Tigers 60-26.

BOYS

Allen 86, Maud 42

Leading 37-25 at halftime, the Mustangs (1-0) opened the third quarter with a 9-0 run, capped by a free throw by Taylor Ross, to increase their lead to 46-25 with 5:46 left in the period. From there, Allen was never threatened.

The Mustangs also forced the Tigers to commit 22 turnovers in the contest.

“We’ve got a little more quickness than we’ve had in previous years,” Allen boys coach Greg Mills said. “These kids like to play, and they want to play. They’ll get after you, and I like that about them.”

But while the final margin of victory was large, at the end of the first half it appeared as if the Tigers (0-1) were on the verge of gaining momentum.

Down 37-17 with 3:12 left before halftime, Maud ended the first half on an 8-0 run, capped by Cody Brewer’s 3-point basket with 48 seconds remaining in the first half, to cut the Allen lead to 37-25 at halftime.

Prior to that, the Mustangs led by as many as a 21-point lead in the first half. Dylan Jackson’s 3-pointer with 3:49 remaining before halftime gave Allen, which scored the game’s first 10 points, a 35-14 advantage.

“We kind of came up there in the end of the first half and kind of put it on cruise control,” Mills said. “We just thought we would stay with that lead, but it didn’t work that way. We had a talk at halftime, and got things straightened out a little bit. We then got things back under control.”

Jackson scored 18 points, half coming on 3s, to lead Allen. Ross scored 14, while Dylan Milne added 12 and grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds to record a double-double. Brett Edens grabbed 10 rebounds to reach double figures in that category for the Mustangs.

Mills believes that the Mustangs are indeed feeding off the football team’s successful 2009 season.

“Any success we have carries over,” he said. “Just winning makes a big difference. The football coach (Kenny Deaton) and I have been friends for a long time. He wants our kids to do well, and I want his kids to do well.”

In defeat, Shane Bailey scored 17 points to lead Maud, while Dylan Stafford recorded a team-high 11 boards to go with his five points.

GIRLS

Allen 60, Maud 26

Trailing 10-9 with 6:24 left before halftime, the Lady Mustangs (1-0) went on a 15-0 run, capped by a basket by Jordyn Mills, to take a 24-10 lead with 1:35 remaining in the first half. Allen enjoyed a 24-14 halftime advantage.

That 10-point deficit was as close as the Lady Tigers (0-1) got. Allen’s final margin of victory, 34 points, was its biggest lead of the second half. Three straight baskets by Chelsea Coody to end the game did the honors.

While it was not the game plan going in, Allen’s six-player advantage (15 players to Maud’s nine) seemed to take its toll on the visitors. But the numbers game had another purpose for Allen girls coach Jeremy Strong.

“We’re not real big,” he said. “We’re pretty small across the board. So, we have to use speed to try to force some turnovers.”

And the Allen defense did just that. The Lady Mustangs forced 39 Lady Tiger turnovers — 19 of which came in the first half.

“We got after it,” Strong said. “We did make some silly fouls, and we did get a little lazy at times. But we corrected that in the second half.”

The game did not start off at a very fast pace. After free throws by Maud’s Erica Palmer and Mills tied the game at 1-1 at the 6:06 mark of the opening period, Allen went on a 5-0 run to take a 6-1 lead with 4:37 left in the quarter on Mills’ 3-point basket.

But the Lady Tigers responded with a 5-0 run of their own. A free throw by Jennifer Sanders with 31 seconds remaining in the period knotted the game at 6-all after the first eight minutes.

Maud’s Rennie Robledo hit a free throw with 6:24 left in the first half to give the Lady Tigers a 10-9 lead. But from there, it was all Lady Mustangs.

“A win’s a win,” Strong said. “As long as it was (the game last more than 90 minutes), I’ll take a win. It was ugly, but I’ll take a win.”

The two teams combined for a whopping 57 free throws.

Mills led all scorers with 16 points for Allen.

In defeat, Lori Willis led Maud with nine points.

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