For the second time in four days, the Ankeny Centennial boys’ basketball team faced an opponent that was equally desperate to earn its first victory of the season.
After letting Friday’s game at Urbandale slip away in a 58-57 loss, the Jaguars rebounded on Monday with a non-conference win, rallying in the second half for a 64-59 triumph at Iowa City Liberty.
“It was a good shot in the arm,” said Centennial coach Bob Fontana, whose team improved to 1-4 overall. “We did what we had to do in the fourth quarter to come out on top.”
Cabryn Klingner scored a career-high 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds to lead the way. Sean Tunks had a season-high 15 points and also pulled down seven boards, while Rex Jensen added a career-high 12 points.
“I thought Kolby Bechen and Owen Liechti gave us some good minutes off the bench, too,” Fontana said.
Brady Randall had a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead Liberty, which dropped to 0-4. Fellow sophomore Jerimiah Washpun also scored 17 points, while Maddoc Coapstick added 15.
Three of Liberty’s losses have come by a total of 13 points. The Lightning held a halftime lead in all three games.
Centennial trailed at the break, 33-29, after Liberty made a 50-foot shot at the buzzer. It was one of the Lightning’s seven 3-point goals.
The Jaguars closed to within 43-42 after three quarters, then outscored Liberty, 22-16, in the final period.
“We’ve got to learn both from our successes and our lapses, and I would say that again about this game,” Fontana said. “We would play real well for 3 or 4 minutes and then we’d either miss open shots or turn the ball over or didn’t block out. But I thought we had some guys show some toughness, especially in the last 4 minutes. We also took four charges on the defensive end, and that was big for us.
“Hopefully, this is something we can build on,” he added.
Centennial will return to CIML Conference play on Friday, when the Jaguars travel to Valley. The two-time defending state champion Tigers are 3-1 in the league and overall after falling to Dowling Catholic, 54-53, on Friday.
