This wasn’t the break that the Ankeny Centennial boys’ basketball team needed.
After struggling to a 1-10 start this season, the Jaguars got some more bad news prior to Tuesday’s game against visiting Valley. Sophomore forward Evan Abbott, the squad’s leading scorer with an average of 12.3 points per game, was shut down due to a stress fracture in his foot.
“It’s one of those chronic injuries,” said Centennial assistant coach Matt Delger, who filled in for ailing head coach Bob Fontana in the Jaguars’ 65-49 loss. “It won’t heal unless you’re off of it, and I think the pain has gotten so bad that he needs to shut it down and let it heal. We hope he’s back soon, but you never know with those things.”
Delger found out earlier in the day that Abbott wouldn’t be the only one missing for the Jaguars.
“Coach Fontana has been sick the last two days,” Delger said. “He told me this morning that he wouldn’t be here.”
No. 2 Valley, the two-time defending Class 4A state champion, led from start to finish. The Tigers shot 66.7 percent from the field (28-of-42) and outrebounded Centennial by a 29-13 margin.
After Valley jumped out to an 8-0 lead, the Jaguars responded with back-to-back 3-point goals by Sean Tunks. He led the team with 19 points, going 5-of-9 from behind the arc.
But the Tigers then got two consecutive treys of their own from Jayden McGregory, who was one of four Valley players in double figures with 11 points.
Centennial closed the gap to 21-15 at the end of the first quarter, but Valley then opened the second period with an 8-0 run–capped off by a pair of dunks from Iowa State football recruit Zay Robinson. The Jaguars could get no closer than nine points the rest of the way.
Robinson and Trevin Jirak each scored 18 points on a combined 16-of-19 shooting. Jirak, a Northern Iowa commit, also had 14 rebounds and two blocks.
“They’re a difficult team to guard,” Delger said. “Jirak had his way at times. We lack a little bit of the girth to push him out of his spots, but our guys fought all the way to the end and that was a positive.”
Robinson also had four steals for Valley, which improved to 10-1 in the CIML Conference and 11-2 overall. Kiki Deng added 10 points.
Cayden Clark scored a career-high 11 points for the Jaguars, whose records dropped to 0-11 and 1-11. Clark also had three steals, while Cabryn Klingner chipped in eight points.
“I was really pleased with how we fought,” Delger said. “We played fearless against a really good Valley team. We think we did things tonight that we can build on–holding them to 25 points in the second half and taking away some of the things they wanted to do. The guys really bought into the game plan and were able to execute.”
Centennial will host a non-conference game against Dallas Center-Grimes on Friday. The Mustangs (7-4) are coming off a 50-48 loss to Ankeny on Tuesday.
