Trojans hold off Allen, 93-85

For the second time this season the Colby Community College men's basketball team took down Allen Community College after a 93-85 victory Wednesday night at the Community Building.

"We played great for 90 percent of this game," said Trojans head coach Rusty Grafel. For every run they went on we wanted to go on three, and I thought up to the four minute mark in the game we had done that."

After a modest scoring output resulted in a Colby 33-24 halftime lead, each side found their offense after the break.

Colby expanded the lead by 20 in the second half and led 77-60 with around five minutes remaining. However, the Red Devils came storming back and cut the deficit to 81-78 on a Jordan Marshall 3-pointer at the 2:35 mark. The Trojans held on by converting enough free-throws and playing solid defense.

"We need to still help ourselves and minimize some mistakes down the stretch so we can close games," Grafel said. "Korey [Somerville] gave us a great spark in the second half." Each game we play is the only game we need to be focused on."     

Ty Dalton had a career-high 20 points to go with 12 rebounds and Somerville finished with 19 points on 6-7 from behind the arc. Three other Trojans scored in double figures – Gabriel Gyamfi (18), David Hall (15) and Xavier Smith.

Colby held a decisive rebounding edge (54-37) and grabbed 18 at the offensive end. They also dished out 19 assists.

The Red Devils had four players in double figures, led by a game-high 21 from Tyler Williams and 18 from Marshall.

"At this point in our season our goals as a team get more realistic," Grafel said. "We swept our first team in-conference and we have a chance to do the same thing on Saturday against Independence." 

The Trojans edged the Pirates Nov. 20 in Independence, 74-71. A victory by Grafel's squad Saturday would be the eleventh Jayhawk Conference win, a first in program history. Tip-off at the Community Building is set for approximately 6 p.m. after the women's game.