(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
Ever since transferring from Cedar Falls to Ankeny Centennial after her freshman girls’ basketball season, Mya Crawford has carved out a pretty important role for the Jaguars.
She’s started nearly 60 games over two and a half seasons, she’s scored a lot of baskets and she’s helped win a ton of games for Centennial.
But her 11 points during the Jaguars’ 62-27 victory over Urbandale on Tuesday not only helped Centennial successfully bounce back from its loss at Waukee Northwest four days earlier, but it also allowed her to reach the 1,000-point career milestone in the process.
“It feels good to finally be able to accomplish (1,000 career points),” Crawford said. “It’s something that I looked forward to since my freshman year, but I wouldn’t have been able to do that without all my teammates. Coming from Cedar Falls to here, the transition was hard but I had great people around me that helped me through that all.”
In a game where the Jaguars struggled a bit on the offensive side of things during the first half, the Drake commit provided a much-needed spark in the second half as Centennial rolled past the J-Hawks for the second time this season.
As the Jaguars struggled to get some shots to fall in the first half, Crawford was one of the few players to not get on the scoresheet going into halftime.
But once the ball got rolling for them in the second half, Crawford and the Jaguars cruised to victory as she recorded all 11 of her points in the final two quarters.
Crawford knocked down a 3-pointer for her first points during Centennial’s hot start to the second half. She followed it by converting from the free-throw line and adding another bucket for six points in the third quarter.
Another free throw and a pair of buckets in the fourth quarter rounded out Crawford’s night as she helped the Jaguars build up their lead on the way to the eventual 35-point victory.
The senior point guard also racked up seven rebounds, five assists, six steals and two blocks.
“The points are awesome, but it’s more her spirit, her passion and all the intangibles she brings to our team,” Centennial coach Scott DeJong said of Crawford’s impact. “I think that’s what she’s known for on our team. She’s a fierce competitor and all those things that she brings are contagious.”
The Jaguars initially got off to a hot start with Finley Blackmore and Tillie Smith starting them out on an 8-0 run. They struggled to get shots to consistently fall, but some late scores from Jaeden Pratt and Rylyn Boeding helped give them a 14-point cushion with a 17-3 lead.
The second quarter was where Centennial struggled the most as Urbandale ended up outsourcing the Jaguars, 12-8, to cut the lead down to 25-15 going into halftime.
Smith made a 3-pointer on the first shot of the second half, opening up the floodgates for Centennial as it regained its confidence as the fourth-ranked team in Class 5A.The Jaguars went on to score 23 points in the third quarter and 14 more in the final period to improve to 5-4 in the CIML Conference and 8-4 overall. Urbandale’s records dropped to 0-10 and 2-11.
Pratt recorded a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, helping her team to a 39-25 advantage on the boards. Blackmore had nine points, while Ava Martin and Lizzie Beam each added seven.
“We knew we were the better team and had that confidence,” Crawford said. “We kind of slowed down, played our game, learned how to play their defense and just kept playing our defense. We got stops and scores more as we went through it.”
While the offense took a little while to get going, the Jaguars were locked in on defense from the start.
Urbandale’s first basket of the game didn’t come until there was 2 minutes 35 seconds left in the first quarter. The J-Hawks’ only other point of the period came on a free throw.
“I thought we got off to a really good start,” said DeJong, whose team also posted a 66-32 win over Urbandale last month. “We missed a lot of shots, but I thought our defense was really good early. We forced 15 turnovers in the first half, and it took us until halftime before we settled down a little bit. Our offense in the third quarter was really good.”
The Jaguars will host another conference game against No. 2 Dowling Catholic on Friday. The Maroons are 8-1 in the league and 11-2 overall after rolling to a 78-53 win over Valley on Tuesday.
Centennial visited Dowling on Dec. 10 and dropped a 56-52 decision. The Jaguars rallied from a 14-point deficit in that game just to fall short in the end.
“We just need to prepare ourselves (for Dowling) better this time,” Crawford said. “They’re a great team with great players. Like three of their players are probably Division I players, so we just got to lock in on our defense and trust each other that we can fight and give it our all out there.”
