Ankeny Centennial boys’ basketball coach Bob Fontana has won a lot of big games in his career.
Tuesday’s season-opening contest against visiting Southeast Polk may have been one of his most disappointing losses.
The Jaguars built a 42-27 lead in the second half and still held a nine-point lead after three quarters before Southeast Polk opened the final period with a 14-0 run and went on to post a 54-49 victory.
“It was very frustrating,” said Fontana. “When you have a 15-point lead with 3 minutes 30 seconds left in the third quarter, you seem like you’re in control of your destiny. But our ball security was not good in the fourth quarter. We missed some easy shots inside, and some bad possessions offensively led to some easy offensive possessions for them.”
Centennial went scoreless for almost the entire fourth quarter. Easton Pratt finally made a baseline jumper with 18 seconds left to end the scoring drought, cutting the Rams’ lead to 50-47.
After Southeast Polk’s Lincoln Cantrall hit two free throws with 12.7 seconds to go, the Jaguars got another basket from Luke Winkel to close the gap to 52-49 with 6 seconds remaining.
The Rams then sealed the win on a pair of free throws by Riley Edwards with 4.3 seconds left. Edwards finished with a game-high 23 points on 8-of-15 shooting.
“We became very lazy with some of our passes, and we weren’t attacking their zone (defense) like we were earlier,” Fontana said of his team’s fourth-quarter collapse. “Then I think we got a little hesitant. We’re going to have some growing pains. We don’t have a lot of experience. Hopefully, we’ll learn from it. I’m glad it happened early. We’ve got a lot of time to get better. But the bottom line is that we need to be more sound fundamentally with the basketball.”
Centennial appeared to be in control after closing out the first half with a 14-3 run to take a 33-23 lead. Caden Kelling ignited the run when he converted a steal into a layup, then stole the ball again and passed to Winkel for a layup.
After a Southeast Polk miss, Kelling grabbed the rebound and then went coast-to-coast for another layup to give the Jaguars a 25-20 advantage with 3:50 left until halftime.
In the third quarter, Kelling’s backcourt mate–Jackson Snyder–converted a 3-point play, then turned a steal into a layup. Reece Robinson followed with another basket to extend Centennial’s lead to 42-27.
However, that’s when the Jaguars’ offense went stagnant for the rest of the game.
“We only had one turnover at halftime,” Fontana said. “But we had 10 in the second half–six of them in the fourth quarter.”
Edwards scored five straight points to pull the Rams within 43-36 before Chase Schutty got a basket for Centennial to end the third quarter. Southeast Polk’s big run in the final period began with a basket by football star Kadyn Proctor.
Cantrall later drilled a 3-pointer to tie the game at 45-45 with 4:32 left. Edwards then converted a steal into a layup 25 seconds later to put the Rams ahead for good.
Cantrall was fouled on a 3-pointer with 1:15 to go and made three straight free throws to push the lead to 50-45. He ended up with 14 points, while Proctor added 10 points and nine rebounds.
Southeast Polk overcame 20 turnovers with 47.6 percent shooting from the field (20-of-42) and 84.6 percent accuracy from the free-throw line (11-of-13).
“I’d have to think long and hard about a time when we had a 15-point lead in the third quarter and we let it slip away like that,” Fontana said. “It was disappointing to lose. But we’ve got to learn from it and move on.”
Snyder led the Jaguars with 13 points. Schutty chipped in 11 points, nine rebounds and two blocks.
Winkel added eight points. Snyder and Kelling each had four assists and three steals.
“I’ve got to be a little more patient early with this group since we don’t have the experience we’ve had the last two years,” Fontana said. “The big thing is that the attitude has to stay good, and we’ve got to learn from our mistakes.”
Centennial will host Fort Dodge (0-1) in its CIML Iowa Conference opener on Friday. The Dodgers opened their season with a 70-44 loss at Des Moines Hoover on Tuesday.
