(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
The Ankeny girls’ basketball team is getting some big tests in December, and none was bigger than Tuesday night’s.
The seventh-ranked Hawkettes were tasked with trying to snap the 29-game winning streak of reigning Class 5A state champion Johnston, but a large deficit in the first quarter ended those hopes as the No. 1 Dragons rolled to a 72-36 victory.
Ankeny dropped to 2-2 in the CIML Conference and 4-2 overall with its second straight loss. The Hawkettes fell to No. 5 Ankeny Centennial, 44-33, on Friday.
“We didn’t expect to turn the ball over nine times in the first quarter,” said Ankeny coach Nate Tobey, whose team finished with 21 turnovers. “We just couldn’t slow our bodies and minds down enough to move the ball well enough to get good shots. You just cannot get yourself in a hole against an elite team like that.”
Ankeny scored just two baskets in the first quarter. Both came from junior guard Jayla Williams.
Williams answered Johnston’s 8-0 run to open the game by driving to the hoop off an assist from Ainsley Kiene. She later ended another scoring drought with a second drive to the hoop, cutting the Dragons’ lead to 14-4 with 2 minutes 20 seconds left in the opening period.
Even when the Hawkettes were able to click offensively and stuck with the Dragons in the second quarter, the eventual 20-4 deficit after the first quarter presented a hole that was a little too deep to climb out of against a powerhouse Johnston team.
“The individual skill level is so high, they play so well together and put so much pressure on you in transition,” Tobey said. “It’s a testament to their players and all the work they’ve put in as a group.”
The Dragons opened the second quarter with a 9-0 run, but Ankeny fired right back with its best run of the game.
Fueled inside by Williams and Savannah Gage, along with some outside shooting from Kiene, Reagan Baldwin and Kyla Schaapveld, the Hawkettes went on a 17-9 run to close out the half and trailed 38-21 going into the locker room. Kiene capped off the run by sinking a 3-pointer over a defender in the final seconds before the buzzer.
Kiene led Ankeny in the second half by scoring 10 of the team’s 15 total points in the third and fourth quarters. She paced the Hawkettes with 13 points and 10 rebounds, while Williams added 11 points, seven boards and two assists.
“Everything was the same, but we were just able to move the ball and had people open to swing the basketball, which is a huge key for us,” Tobey said.
Despite keeping things close in the second and third quarters, Johnston snowballed its lead in the fourth quarter after outscoring Ankeny 19-5 in the final frame to secure its 30th consecutive victory.
Jenica Lewis scored 21 points on 8-of-15 shooting to lead the Dragons, who are now 3-0 in the conference and 4-0 overall. She also had five rebounds, four assists, six steals and two blocks.
Even though the two teams battled it out on the court, the CIML rivals banded together pregame to show some love to the family of Johnston senior center Amani Jenkins–who finished with 11 points and five boards.
Jenkins’ younger sister, Brooklynn, is undergoing cancer treatments to remove a tumor in her right leg. Ankeny was the latest team to support the Jenkins family with purple shirts reading “In Our Family Nobody Fights Alone.”
Coaches and players from both teams kept the shirts on during pregame warmups and on the bench during the game.
“Amani is friends with a number of our girls and her younger sister is undergoing treatments right now,” Tobey said. “Our school and the parent group ordered the shirts for us, which I was 100 percent in support of. We’re really happy to support the (Jenkins) family and their program.”
Ankeny now shifts its focus to Friday as the Hawkettes look to bounce back from their back-to-back losses with a road game at Waukee. The No. 12 Warriors are 1-2 in the conference and 3-2 overall after rallying to beat Southeast Polk, 60-54, on Tuesday.
