This wasn’t just another November victory for the Ankeny Centennial girls’ basketball team.
The fifth-ranked Jaguars scored the final nine points of the game and rallied to beat No. 2 Pleasant Valley, 44-40, on Saturday in Cedar Rapids. The contest was part of the 19th Rivalry Saturday held on the campus of Kirkwood Community College.
“To go to a neutral site but on the road for a long drive and play a really good team and compete hard and come out on top, that’s a good early-season win,” said Centennial coach Scott DeJong.
The Jaguars (2-0) ended Pleasant Valley’s 26-game winning streak. It was the season opener for the Spartans, who won last year’s Class 5A state title to complete an undefeated campaign.
“This was a huge win for us,” said Centennial junior Jaeden Pratt. “Coming back from last year and having a totally different team and seeing girls come in and give us a spark was huge. It is a confidence-booster, but we still have a chunk of important games still ahead of us.”
Pratt made a jumper midway through the fourth quarter to tie the game at 40-40. She then connected on a go-ahead jumper with 54 seconds left.
Centennial’s Mya Crawford stole the ball with 20 seconds to go and was fouled. She converted the second of two free throws to give the Jaguars a 43-40 advantage.
Pratt then stole a crosscourt pass on Pleasant Valley’s ensuing possession. Crawford was fouled again and made the first of two free throws with 6 seconds remaining to seal the win.
“The key to the game was definitely rhythm and rebounding,” Pratt said. “The less attempts they got for second-chance points was big for us. We knew what we had to do on the offensive end by just moving the ball and trying to find openings in their zone.”
Pratt finished with eight points, five rebounds and three steals. Crawford had six points, eight boards and seven assists.
Tillie Smith went 4-of-10 from 3-point range and scored 12 points to lead the Jaguars, who went 8-of-20 from behind the arc. Finley Blackmore added nine points, going 3-of-5 from deep.
“We’ve got some really good shooters,” DeJong said. “Traditionally, we wouldn’t shoot that many 3s, but this year we will. Forty percent from 3 is pretty good. We had some timely ones–Finley hit two back-to-back (in the third quarter), and Tillie had a big one late in the game. The shooting is important for our success.”
Addy Maurer and Quinn Vice each had 12 points to lead Pleasant Valley, which shot just 35.9 percent from the field (14-of-39). The Spartans also committed 23 turnovers.
Jessie Clemons and Reagan Pagniano were held to a combined three points on 1-of-10 shooting. Pagniano averaged 12.9 points per game a year ago, while Clemons averaged 9.6.
Isabelle Kremer and Hailey Asselin each had six rebounds for the Spartans, who won the battle of the boards by a 31-22 margin. But the rebounding edge wasn’t enough to offset the team’s ballhandling woes and shooting struggles.
“They hadn’t played yet, so we didn’t have any tape on how they would play,” DeJong said. “But their starting lineup goes 6-4, 6-3 and 6-1, and they play that extended 2-3 zone so it’s really hard to score on them in the paint when they’re that big. We had to make it a defensive game, and fortunately we were able to grind it out. We were down 34-25 midway through the third quarter. Our defense stepped up, held them to six points the last quarter and a half and that gave us a chance to win.”
Centennial will travel to Urbandale on Tuesday for its CIML Conference opener against the J-Hawks (1-1).
