The Ankeny boys’ basketball players didn’t panic when their crosstown rival surged to a five-point lead in the first half of Tuesday’s game at Ankeny Centennial.
The Hawks had been in this position before.
Ankeny rallied from a five-point halftime deficit to beat the Jaguars a month ago, and the Hawks used a similar rally on Tuesday to pull away for a 69-51 victory. They went on a 24-5 run that bridged the two halves to build a 50-36 advantage.
“I feel like the growth of our team is being able to handle adversity and making adjustments on the fly versus being so occupied by negativity, which younger teams can do,” said Ankeny coach Brandt Carlson. “That was good to see it. You don’t know it until you go through it. (The Jaguars) were playing well. They were getting downhill and hitting their shots, and we were kind of all over the place defensively. I was happy with what we talked about at halftime and the way we came together.”
Ankeny has won four straight games in the series after losing the previous three, matching the longest winning streak by either school in the history of the crosstown rivalry. The Hawks now own a 13-12 edge in the all-time series.
“It feels great to go out on a high note (against Centennial),” said Ankeny senior Luke Anderson, who had two of the Hawks’ 10 3-point goals.
Rio Aguirre scored 19 points, dished out a single-game school record 12 assists and added eight rebounds as Ankeny evened its marks at 3-3 in the CIML Conference and 4-4 overall. Jasani Campbell and Drew Sorensen each added 12 points, while Kael Roush had a career-high 10 points and grabbed nine rebounds.
The Hawks were coming off a 61-55 win on Saturday over Linn-Mar (Marion), which is No. 7 in Class 4A in the initial rankings by the Iowa High School Athletic Association.
“That game did a lot for us,” Anderson said. “Our young guys keep growing and getting better, and that’s all we can ask for. I think just as a team we’re growing and as a family we’re really coming together, and it’s awesome.”
Evan Abbott scored 15 points and Sean Tunks chipped in 11 for the Jaguars, who dropped to 0-7 in the league and 1-7 overall.
“We liked our chances coming in, but we had a couple of empty possessions there late in the first half and then they scored, and the next thing you know they go up by three (points) at half,” said Centennial coach Bob Fontana. “I thought we got things corrected at halftime hopefully, but in the first couple of minutes of the third quarter they got an and-one and then pick up a loose ball and kick it to the corner for a 3, and now we’re down by nine. There was still a lot of game left, but we got sped up and took some quick shots and made some questionable decisions and that’s when the game got away from us.”
There were six ties and seven lead changes in the first half, when neither team led by more than five points. Abbott had 10 of his points in the first two quarters, most of them on drives to the basket.
“We just needed to be more connected and take away driving lanes,” Carlson said. “We were giving up so many layups that it was unbelievable. It’s tough to win that way.”
Campbell scored eight of his points during the Hawks’ big run. He opened the second half with a traditional 3-point play, then followed with a 3-pointer.
Roush later hit another trey to extend Ankeny’s margin to 48-36.
“We’ve been working on it a lot in practice,” Anderson said of the Hawks’ perimeter shooting. “We know we’ve been struggling from 3 early in the season, but we’ve been working on it so we know it’s going to get better.”
Ankeny shot 56.5 percent from the field, including 10-of-21 from behind the arc.
“Both teams had the same number of two-point baskets, but they had 10 3s to just five for us,” Fontana said. “And they also outrebounded us by eight. Those were the two huge statistics that stood out to me.”
The Hawks outscored Centennial, 18-6, in the decisive third quarter. The Jaguars’ only points came on a 3-point play by Tunks and a 3-pointer by Abbott.
“Our defense was the key,” said Anderson, who had two of Ankeny’s six steals. “We just took more pride in our effort and matching up with them better.”
Carlson went deeper on his bench as the game progressed. Dylan Gloviak contributed five points, LaMarious Clark had three, and Evan Irlmeier added two points, three rebounds and two assists.
“It’s always nice to get some different guys in the game,” he said. “It was nice to see Evan and LaMarious really get acclimated to things. We’re going to need those guys down the stretch. It’s going to take some time and we have some tough opponents coming up, and we have a lot more learning ahead of us. But this was a good win for us, and I’m proud of the guys.”
The Hawks will host No. 2 Valley on Friday. The two-time defending Class 4A state champion Tigers are 6-1 in the conference and 7-2 overall.
Ankeny lost the first meeting at Valley, 76-65, on Dec. 3.
The Jaguars, meanwhile, will play a conference game at No. 3 Waukee Northwest. The Wolves are 5-2 in the league and 7-2 overall.
Northwest won the first meeting at Centennial, 60-38, last month.
“There’s no easy ones in our league, and nobody is going to feel sorry for you,” Fontana said. “We play well at times for a half, but we can’t put ourselves in a hole like that against anybody in our league. We’ve got to learn from it and do our best to play more than 16 minutes a game.”
