As the calendar turns to February, the Ankeny boys’ basketball team appears to be peaking just in time for the stretch run.
One week after suffering a humbling loss on its home court to Southeast Polk, the Hawks traveled to Dowling Catholic on Friday and posted a 63-48 victory over the ninth-ranked Maroons. It was their fifth consecutive road win and their third triumph over a top-10 opponent this season.
“Isn’t that weird? It’s quite a difference from last Friday,” said Ankeny coach Brandt Carlson, whose team has won two straight games since dropping a 74-36 decision to the Rams on Jan. 24. “Obviously, it’s really big. I think Dowling is awesome–they’ve got a really good team. They’ve beaten a lot of good teams, and they’ll beat some other teams, too. The hard part for us is we have to play them in 10 days or so. We have to be ready to do it again.”
Rio Aguirre had a double-double with 21 points and 10 rebounds as Ankeny improved to 5-6 in the CIML Conference and 8-7 overall. The Maroons’ records dropped to 7-5 and 10-5.
“They were a top-ranked team, so it was good to come in here and take over,” said Aguirre, who also dished out six assists.
Ankeny never trailed after Luke Anderson scored eight consecutive points early in the game to put the Hawks ahead, 10-3.
“It was super important,” Anderson said of the fast start. “We knew coming in to it that we had to apply the pressure to them. That’s when we’re at our best. We knew if we stepped on it right away we’d have a good chance at it.”
Anderson drained a pair of 3-point goals to start the run, then added a pair of free throws. The Hawks went 12-of-13 at the charity stripe, while Dowling went just 3-of-8.
“Luke works so hard every day in practice, so we know he can do this every night,” Aguirre said. “It was definitely huge. We probably haven’t shot it the greatest all season like we hoped we would, but it’s good that we’re starting to pick it up now.”
Ankeny held a 26-19 advantage at halftime, then used a 12-5 run midway through the third quarter to extend the margin to 43-29. Drew Sorensen and Jasani Campbell each had four points in the run.
Dowling got a rare four-point play from Noah Martens early in the fourth quarter to cut the Hawks’ lead to 49-39, but Dylan Gloviak converted a steal into a layup shortly thereafter to halt the Maroons’ rally.
Ankeny’s defensive pressure was a key factor in the win.
“I’ll give a lot of credit to Dylan honestly,” Carlson said. “You know, he challenged me on a couple things as far as we can still play similarly like we’ve played in the past with our defense and some of our focuses. So I really give him a ton of credit for saying, ‘Hey coach, trust us more.’ He did that, and it worked. Our guys are definitely competing hard.”
Dowling was held to 42.6 percent shooting from the field (20-of-47), including just 5-of-17 from 3-point range. The Hawks also won the rebounding battle, 27-22.
“We’ve really been focusing on defense a lot, because defense leads to offense,” Anderson said. “We really just came in with a good game plan, and our boys executed well.”
Campbell scored 14 points in the win, going 2-of-2 from behind the arc. He also grabbed six boards and matched Gloviak with a pair of steals.
Anderson finished with 10 points, and Sorensen added eight.
“It was a great effort by our guys,” Carlson said. “They were really locked in. We’ll just enjoy it.”
Aguirre said it wasn’t hard for the Hawks to put the Southeast Polk loss behind them.
“We always have the postseason in mind,” he said. “It was obviously a tough loss–we didn’t want that to happen, but we just flushed it and went on to the next one. We’ll just keep playing for March.”
Ankeny will host a conference game against No. 5 Waukee Northwest on Monday. The Wolves are 9-3 in the league and 13-3 overall after defeating No. 6 Waukee, 67-64, on Jan. 24.
Northwest, which has been idle for a week, will host a rematch against the Hawks on Feb. 20.
