The Ankeny Centennial boys’ basketball team closed out the regular season Thursday on a high note.
The 10th-ranked Jaguars jumped out to a 17-8 lead at the end of the first quarter and went on to post a 59-40 victory over visiting Johnston, allowing them to complete a sweep of the season series.
“We got off to a great start,” said Centennial coach Bob Fontana. “They made a run on us, but we weathered that and then played real well the second half. We were connected on both ends of the floor and just got a lot of solid contributions from a lot of guys because we were down one starter.”
Nick Vaske was out with the flu, forcing Isaac Runchey to move into the starting lineup. Runchey and Chase Schutty played key roles in the win.
“Nick is one of the best defenders I’ve coached,” Fontana said. “But Runchey did a solid job, and Schutty did a nice job of guarding their perimeter guys. He held (Jalen) Richardson to three points.”
Luke Winkel scored 27 points and dished out five assists to lead the Jaguars. He surpassed the 1,000-point career mark.
Winkel has also broken Connor Kasperbauer’s single-season scoring record. Kasperbauer, who graduated in 2017, is now an assistant coach for the Jaguars.
Schutty had 10 points and eight rebounds in the win. Joey Oakie also grabbed eight boards.
“It was just a solid performance by all of our guys,” Fontana said. “We were so good defensively, and we had 17 assists to just three turnovers so our offensive efficiency was really good.”
Centennial finished 10-6 in the CIML Conference and improved to 16-6 overall. The Dragons’ records dropped to 7-9 and 12-9.
Trovary Cavil had 15 points to lead Johnston.
The Jaguars will host Des Moines Roosevelt or Indianola in a Class 4A substate semifinal on Feb. 23.
“We’ll take a couple days off to give our guys some rest and then we’ll get ready to play,” Fontana said.
