(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
Everybody loves a dramatic finish to a basketball game.
So when Rio Aguirre missed out on the chance to ice Friday’s boys’ game at Johnston with two missed free throws while holding a three-point lead, the Ankeny junior chalked it up to a little bit of accidental showmanship.
Eighth-ranked Johnston had under 10 seconds to tie the game, but the Hawks turned right back around, played some tough defense in the final seconds, and Aguirre tracked down the rebound on a missed 3-pointer to seal his team’s 41-38 victory.
“I like to say that I did it just for the plot,” Aguirre said. “I kept everybody on edge this game, so it was fun. But I wanted to make (the free throws), obviously. I’m just glad we got the win.”
There’s no doubt that Aguirre would’ve loved to go back in time and get another chance at the two missed free throws, but the sharpshooter’s ability to convert at the line played a big role in helping the Hawks exact some revenge on their CIML Conference rival.
Aguirre started the game hot with five straight points, including a 3-pointer. Another trey from Luke Anderson and a bucket from LaMarious Clark allowed the Hawks to jump out to a 10-0 lead.
But as the offense started to slow down, most of Ankeny’s production in the second half came from Aguirre at the charity stripe.
Aguirre went to the line to shoot 18 free throws in the second half off a mixture of drawn shooting fouls and the Dragons racking up team fouls.
Outside of one early missed free throw at the start of the third quarter, Aguirre swished 15 straight free throws for 15 of Ankeny’s 22 total points in the half.
“Free throws are just shots I get up every day, especially days after games when your body is banged up a little bit,” Aguirre said. “Every day at practice, we shoot a bunch of free throws before and after–we’ll stay in the gym after and shoot a lot. I think it just came down to the work we put in.”
Ankeny won despite shooting just 28.6 percent from the field (10-of-35), relying on a strong defensive effort to hold the Dragons to a season-low output. The tone that was set early in the first quarter played a massive role in helping the Hawks close out their victory later in the game.
Ankeny capitalized on some early shooting woes for Johnston to hold the Dragons to just one point in the first quarter. Johnston’s first basket of the game didn’t come until the start of the second period.
“That’s the best defense we’ve probably ever had in a quarter,” said Ankeny coach Brandt Carlson. “For us against a top-10 opponent, I’m really proud of our guys. They really battled, we gave up so many offensive rebounds and so many loose balls, but came up with the key ones at the end. I’m very proud of these guys hanging in there.”
One of the things the Hawks wanted to see improvement on was their ability to close out games, especially when they found themselves in a similar spot against visiting Valley one week earlier.
Ankeny led for most of both games and the opposing team clawed its way back into it at the very end. In the Valley game, the Tigers were able to find the small separation they needed to steal a 64-60 win.
Johnston wasn’t able to do the same thanks to the Hawks’ effort down the stretch.
After the Dragons took two brief leads, Aguirre put his team ahead, 39-38, with a pair of free throws before forcing a turnover by tossing a loose ball at Tino Daye, who was out of bounds.
When the Hawks ended up turning the ball over, Clark soared high to grab a rebound on a missed 3-pointer from Johnston’s Nicare Cavil, which led Aguirre to put Ankeny up by three points with his last pair of free throws.
“If we’re going to make any noise in February and March, we’ve got to know how to win big games and play the game with the lead,” Carlson said. “We have to protect the lead and we were fighting to give it away a couple of times, but our guys have been through this a lot.”
Then, in the final seconds of the game following the missed free throws, the Hawks contested Johnston’s last hope of tying the game on a Seth Gippie 3-pointer, which missed the mark and was rebounded by Aguirre to end it.
Aguirre finished with 22 points and two assists. Jasani Campbell added six points, including a late free throw to give Ankeny a 37-36 lead.The Hawks improved to 4-5 in the conference and 5-6 overall. Johnston’s records dropped to 7-4 and 8-5.
The win over a top-10 opponent is a nice piece for Ankeny’s resume as the Hawks keep trying to climb the rankings with postseason play rapidly approaching.
“It’s definitely a morale booster,” Aguirre said. “We needed a pretty big win like this, especially to keep pushing us up in those rankings for postseason. It was really good to come in and get a win tonight.”
Ankeny will have another chance at a big win when it goes on the road for a non-conference matchup with a strong Dallas Center-Grimes squad on Tuesday. The Mustangs are 7-3 on the season.
