The Ankeny Centennial girls’ basketball team had one of its best shooting performances of the season on Friday.
The-fourth ranked Jaguars shot 46.0 percent from the field (23-of-50) and cruised to a 62-47 victory at No. 14 Southeast Polk in the first meeting between the two CIML Conference rivals, who will face each other again in the regular-season finale next Friday.
It was the last of five straight road games for Centennial, which went 3-2 during that stretch while playing four ranked opponents.
“It was a great win after five road games, and it’ll be great to finish at home!” said Centennial coach Scott DeJong.
Nobody was hotter on Friday than Ava Martin, who scored 16 points for the second game in a row. She went 5-of-5 from 3-point range.
“After a slow start, we heated up with a 22-point second quarter,” said DeJong, whose team held a 30-20 advantage at halftime. “We had two big runs–one late in the first half and one over the first few minutes of the fourth quarter (that increased the lead to 59-31).”
Jaeden Pratt scored 15 of her 19 points in the first half. She is now 62 points away from reaching the 1,000-point career milestone.
Mya Crawford then took over in the second half, scoring 13 of her 17 points in the final two periods and finishing with a double-double. She grabbed 14 rebounds and dished out nine assists while also contributing six steals and a block.
The Jaguars improved to 7-7 in the league and 12-7 overall. Southeast Polk’s records dropped to 5-9 and 8-11.
Centennial will host a conference game against No. 11 Waukee on Tuesday. The Warriors are 7-8 in the league and 11-9 overall after posting a 58-45 win over Valley on Friday for their third straight victory.
The Jaguars lost the first meeting at Waukee, 57-53, on Jan. 31.
