The shots weren’t falling on Tuesday night for Tillie Smith.
But her teammates on the Ankeny Centennial girls’ basketball squad told her to keep shooting, and the advice paid off.
The senior guard made just 2-of-9 shots from the field and went 2-of-8 from behind the arc, but she connected on a pair of 3-point goals in the final 3 minutes as the fourth-ranked Jaguars held off No. 15 Ankeny, 45-37, in a CIML Conference game at Centennial.
“It felt so relieving,” said Smith, who finished with six points. “Some of my teammates were like, ‘Keep shooting.’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know, they’re not going in.’ But you really just have to keep shooting.”
The Hawkettes took a 32-31 lead on a steal and layup by Jayla Williams with 7 minutes left, but Centennial regained the lead on a basket by Finley Blackmore with 5:45 remaining. Then, after a scoreless stretch of more than 3 minutes, Smith made her first trey to extend the Jaguars’ advantage to 36-32 with 2:42 to go.
Ankeny later closed the gap to 38-37 on a 3-pointer by Ainsley Kiene with 1:17 left, but Centennial then took 30 seconds off the clock before Smith swished another 3-pointer to give her team a 41-37 lead.
“That was good to see,” Centennial coach Scott DeJong said of Smith’s late heroics. “We had some really good looks, and they weren’t falling. I know we’ve got some good shooters. We’ve just got to keep working on it.”
The Jaguars eventually sealed the win at the charity stripe. Blackmore made two free throws after Smith came up with a steal, then Mya Crawford added two more to produce the final margin.
Centennial completed a sweep of the season series and has now won four straight meetings in the rivalry after losing two of the previous three contests. The Jaguars improved to 4-3 in the conference and 7-3 overall.
“It feels good to get the win,” Smith said. “Before the game, we were realizing that this is maybe the last time we’ll play Ankeny.”
It was the seventh consecutive loss for Ankeny, which overcame an 11-point deficit to take a five-point lead before falling short in the end. The Hawkettes dropped to 2-6 in the league and 4-7 overall.
“This is eerily similar to several other games we’ve had against them over the last two years since I’ve been here,” said Ankeny coach Nate Tobey, whose team shot just 27.7 percent from the field (13-of-47). “You have the potential to take the lead or a multiple-possession lead in the fourth quarter, and you just can’t convert good looks.”
Williams poured in a game-high 19 points to lead Ankeny, but it wasn’t enough. After being held to a season-low two points in a 44-33 loss to Centennial last month, the junior guard was often the best player on the court Tuesday.
Williams also had nine rebounds and three steals.
“She’s a tremendous player,” DeJong said. “When she gets going like that, it’s hard to stop her. But I thought we did a good job on her at the end.”
Williams scored nine points in the third quarter as Ankeny rallied from a 21-11 halftime deficit. The Hawkettes opened the second half with a 17-2 run and took a 28-23 lead on a 3-pointer by Reagan Baldwin with 2:24 left in the period.
“I think it was just realizing how to guard their main players and trying to make their other role players play a bigger role in the game,” Williams said of her team’s comeback.
Williams started the run with a 3-pointer. She later grabbed a rebound and put it back in to give the Hawkettes a 30-26 advantage.
“She’s really been aggressive lately in figuring out how to get to her spots even against elite defenders,” Tobey said. “It’s been fun to watch her progress and see her confidence grow as the season goes on.”
The Jaguars got a 3-pointer from reserve Maize Smith to end Ankeny’s run. Jaeden Pratt answered the rebound basket by Williams with one of her own, then Crawford followed with another trey to give Centennial a 31-30 lead after three quarters.
That set the stage for the dramatic finish.
“They’ve maybe been down a little bit, but I thought they played really well tonight,” DeJong said of the Hawkettes. “They had a streak there where they were really shooting the ball in the third quarter. I thought our defense was greatly consistent throughout (the whole game) except for that stretch. Finally, our offense–we made a few shots–and that’s what we needed to do.”
Pratt and Crawford each had a double-double for the Jaguars. Pratt scored 12 of her 16 points in the first half and also had 10 rebounds.
Crawford went just 3-of-11 from the field, but still produced a monster game with 10 points, 16 rebounds, four assists, three steals and three blocks. Blackmore added six points.
Kiene had eight points for the Hawkettes. Savannah Gage dished out four assists.
“We’ve just got to put together a full game on both sides of the court,” said Tobey, whose team was outrebounded by a 38-27 margin. “It’s just hard with our schedule to get a chance to work on some things. We’ll just continue to keep working and give these teams our best shot.”
The Jaguars will travel to Waukee Northwest on Friday for a rematch against the No. 3 Wolves, who posted a 48-47 win at Centennial on Dec. 3. Northwest is 7-2 in the conference and 9-2 overall.
Ankeny, meanwhile, will host a conference game against Valley, which is 2-6 in the league and 3-7 overall after losing at home to Southeast Polk on Tuesday. The Hawkettes won the first meeting at Valley, 53-43, on Dec. 3.
