The Ankeny boys’ basketball team was coming off perhaps its biggest victory of the season.
A win on Monday over visiting Waukee Northwest would have been even bigger.
Unfortunately, the Hawks’ upset bid came up short in the final 100 seconds.
The fifth-ranked Wolves scored the final six points of the game to post a 68-63 win at Ankeny, allowing them to remain just behind No. 2 Valley and No. 8 Waukee in the CIML Conference standings. They are now 10-3 in the league and 14-3 overall, while the Hawks’ records fell to 5-7 and 8-8.
“When you have seasons like this where you’re growing and learning, you don’t always have opportunities to beat a team like that,” said Ankeny coach Brandt Carlson, whose squad had rolled to a 63-48 triumph at No. 9 Dowling Catholic on Friday. “When you’re that close, you’d like to get it. I’m proud of our guys, but I’m going to lose some sleep over those last couple of possessions.”
Ankeny rallied from an 11-point deficit to take a 63-62 lead on a 3-point play by Jasani Campbell with 1:56 left. Campbell scored 13 of his 20 points in the second half.
“That gave us a lot of confidence. We ran the plays, and we executed correctly,” said Campbell. “We just couldn’t make shots at the end.”
Northwest regained a 64-63 advantage on a basket by Bode Goodman with 1:39 remaining. He finished with 29 points on 8-of-13 shooting and also had two steals.
After Ankeny committed a turnover, Goodman made two free throws with 40.9 seconds to go to make it 66-63. Colin Rice then converted another pair of free throws to seal the win after the Hawks missed a potential tying 3-pointer.
“The effort was great,” Carlson said. “To me, the difference was the last three possessions. We didn’t get anything, and to win a game against those guys you’ve got to score on every possession late and get stops. I thought we had the stops; we just didn’t score.”
Rio Aguirre led Ankeny with 30 points, which tied his career-high. He scored 21 of his points in the final two quarters, when he combined with Campbell for all 34 of the Hawks’ points.
Aguirre made a pair of treys early in the fourth quarter to pull Ankeny within 56-54 with 4:47 left. He later scored on a drive with 3:19 to go to tie it at 58-58, but he was then held scoreless down the stretch.
“It was a good effort,” Campbell said. “Not everybody thought we’d get here being this close to a good team, but I think we showed we really are a good team. It was just a couple of possessions where we didn’t score and hit our shots.”
“I think we learned a lot from this game from playing hard at the defensive end. But we wanted the win, and it hurts,” he added.
Landon Davis had 13 points and three blocks for the Wolves, while Rice had 12 points and three blocks. Peyton McCollum added 11 points, six rebounds and five assists.
Northwest shot 54.5 percent from the field (24-of-44).
“They’re a good team with a lot of good players. A lot of guys can take over,” said Carlson, whose squad will close out the regular season at Northwest on Feb. 20. “They do a really good job in transition communicating with each other, and that makes it really hard. They’ve got a bunch of college players on the floor. But it was a good experience for our guys.”
Ankeny will host another conference game against Urbandale on Friday. It will be the Hawks’ Senior Night.
The J-Hawks are 4-8 in the league and 6-9 overall after posting a 74-41 win at Fort Dodge on Monday.
