The Ankeny Centennial girls’ basketball team may not need any help to win the CIML Iowa Conference title.
But the Jaguars got some anyway.
While third-ranked Centennial rolled to a 66-23 victory at Marshalltown on Friday, No. 12 Waukee Northwest posted a 63-25 win over No. 10 Ankeny to hand the Hawkettes a second loss in league play.
The Jaguars, who are 8-1 in the conference and 14-2 overall, now have complete control of their own destiny. Friday’s win was their eighth in a row.
“We’ve been playing well,” said Centennial coach Scott DeJong. “There are certain goals that we have (for each game). We only had four turnovers tonight, and that was one of our goals. We didn’t want to turn the ball over.”
Centennial built a 44-11 lead at halftime and cruised to the win. The Jaguars have won three straight games, and five of their last seven, by at least 40 points.
“I thought we played hard,” DeJong said. “We had a couple of really hard practices this week, and I think that helped. You just try to keep your edge and try to keep getting better, and I think we’ve done that in a couple of areas.”
Cleao Murray led Centennial with 20 points on 9-of-11 shooting. She reached the 20-point mark for the third time in four games.
Kennedy White had 18 points and 11 rebounds for her second double-double in a row. Averi Porter chipped in 12 points, four assists and four steals.
Lily Roberts had 12 points to pace Marshalltown, which dropped to 1-8 in the conference and 1-17 overall with its seventh consecutive loss. The Bobcats will play a rematch at Centennial on Thursday.
Before that game, the Jaguars will host a non-conference contest against Waukee (9-8) on Tuesday.
