Just call them the Road Warriors.
The Ankeny boys’ basketball team came up with two big defensive stops down the stretch and held on for a 79-77 victory at Dowling Catholic on Friday, extending its winning streak to six games and earning its fourth road win in CIML Conference play.
“We pride ourselves on playing defense,” said Ankeny senior Lio Aguirre. “Sometimes, in this league, games can get pretty out of hand pretty quick and you’ve got to resort to offense. But when the time comes that we need to lock down on defense, we embrace it.”
Ankeny held a 78-77 lead when Aguirre’s defensive pressure forced a shot clock violation by the Maroons with 17 seconds left. Aguirre then made the first of two free throws with 9.4 seconds to go before missing his second attempt.
“I like to say that I missed it for the drama,” Aguirre joked. “I missed it for the plot.”
Dowling had a chance to win the game in the final seconds, but Ryan Kleppe’s 3-pointer bounced off the rim as time expired. He was well-defended on the play by Carson Johnson, who switched onto Kleppe after he took a pass from Joey Coppola at the top of the key.
The Maroons had made 10-of-21 treys before Kleppe’s attempt.
“I knew they were really tough, and Dowling has played well here,” said Ankeny coach Brandt Carlson. “They’ve had some big wins this year, so we were very nervous about their quickness. They’re really athletic kids. I didn’t expect them to shoot like that, but when they run that kind of action and shoot well, they’re really hard to guard. So we were fortunate (to come out with the win).”
Johnson scored 24 points as Ankeny moved into a tie for second place in the conference. The Hawks are now 4-1 in the league and 6-1 overall, while Dowling’s records dropped to 2-4 and 3-4.
Aguirre had 17 points, while Cash Schoolen scored a season-high 13 and also grabbed five rebounds. Luke Anderson added a career-high 11 points, going 3-for-4 from behind the arc.
Anderson’s 3-pointer with 1:22 remaining broke a 75-75 tie and put the Hawks ahead for good. He also had a pair of blocks.
Cade Pederson had eight points on 4-of-4 shooting. Rio Aguirre chipped in six points, seven assists and three steals.
Rio Aguirre twice put Ankeny ahead with a 3-pointer late in the third quarter and a traditional 3-point play to open the final period. Neither team led by more than five points in the game, which featured 11 ties and 17 lead changes.
“When Lio went out, Rio kind of took over for us and that was huge,” Carlson said. “Carson has been steady, Cash made some big plays, and Luke is starting to come around offensively and shooting it well. We’ve got a lot of weapons right now.”
The Hawks shot 54.5 percent from the field (30-of-55), including 7-of-16 from 3-point range (43.8 percent). They had just enough offense to hold off Dowling, which got 23 points and six assists from Coppola, who went 4-of-9 from deep.
Joe Broderick had a double-double for the Maroons with 19 points and 12 boards. Ridik Meton added 18 points.
“I’ve been playing Dowling for four years,” Aguirre said. “They really haven’t shot it well at the start of the season, but I came in here thinking that they always shoot pretty well against Ankeny. We didn’t have our best shooting game, and we still almost scored 80. That just shows how good we can be.”
Carlson said the Hawks will be even better with a few defensive adjustments.
“I feel like we work on defense a lot, but it’s tough when teams are scoring almost 80 (points) on us,” he said. “So that’s happened three times now this year. We’ve just got to find a way to get a little better on defense, but fortunately we’re learning through winning versus taking some (losses) right now. So we’ve got to enjoy it and hopefully correct some things.”
Ankeny will travel across town on Tuesday for another conference road game at Ankeny Centennial (4-2).
