Indianola guard Brayden Drea was excited to play against his former teammates on Monday night.
The Ankeny boys’ basketball players relished that same opportunity.
Lio Aguirre scored 20 points, Carson Johnson added 19, and the Hawks led from start to finish in a 72-60 victory at Indianola in a non-conference game.
“It was fun,” said Ankeny guard Ryan Crandall, who had 14 points, 10 rebounds, two steals and two blocks in the win. “We looked forward to this game for awhile. It’s always fun beating (Drea).”
Drea, a junior guard, started all 20 games at Ankeny last season, averaging 7.0 points per game. He transferred to Indianola over the summer.
Drea had five points, four assists and two steals in Monday’s game. He was averaging 16.3 points.
“He’s just a really good player,” Johnson said of Drea. “He’s still my brother. It was just fun to play against him.”
Ankeny (3-1) jumped out to a big early lead for the third straight game. Crandall had seven points in the first quarter as the Hawks built a 17-11 advantage.
“Anytime you win on the road, it always feels good,” said Ankeny coach Brandt Carlson. “This is a great environment–it’s fun playing here. Our guys stepped up and got better. We got off to a great start again and let them back in it, but got the lead back up a little more this time which helped a lot.”
After going scoreless in the opening period, Johnson erupted at the start of the second quarter, scoring 13 consecutive points for Ankeny.
“I was really feeling it,” Johnson said. “I thought it would get our team going. The energy was amazing. And we just really fed off it well.”
Johnson had a trio of 3-point goals during that stretch. His third one came over Drea and gave the Hawks a 30-15 lead, matching their largest of the game.
“That was pretty impressive by (Johnson),” Crandall said. “He kind of gave it to Drea a little bit, and that was nice to see.”
Indianola (2-2) closed the gap to 37-31 at halftime, but Ankeny then opened the third quarter with an 8-0 run. A basket by Aguirre capped the run and gave the Hawks a 45-31 lead, and he later made two free throws to push the advantage to 53-44 after three periods.
The Indians, who were outrebounded by a 41-27 margin, could get no closer than seven points in the final 8 minutes.
“It was a really big win,” Johnson said. “It was fun.”
Drew Kingery poured in a game-high 25 points to lead Indianola, but went just 9-for-22 from the field. He was 3-for-11 from behind the arc.
“They have some really good players. They’ve got a ton of talent,” Carlson said. “But our guys were up for the challenge. You can let one guy go off, but not two or three. And that’s kind of what happened. We really kept them in check from the 3-point line, and that was our goal.”
Drea was limited to just four shots from the field. He was 1-for-2 from the 3-point line.
“He was fired up to play, for sure,” Crandall said of his former teammate. “I don’t know how well he did, but people guarding him did a really good job of shutting him down.”
Both teams brought some postseason intensity to the game, even though it was played in mid-December.
“We were here last year for substate finals (against Waukee),” Johnson said. “It did not go our way last year, but it did today.”
Carlson was proud of the way his players responded to the atmosphere.
“I think our guys handled it well,” he said. “Our goal is always to beat the other team and not one person. The guys were really mature throughout the game and made that happen.”
Ankeny will be back on the court on Tuesday, hosting a non-conference game against Des Moines Lincoln (2-2).
