The Ankeny girls’ basketball team is still looking to get over the hump.
The 14th-ranked Hawkettes ended their season on Tuesday with a 43-37 loss at No. 3 Waukee Northwest, which closed out the game with a 9-3 run.
Ankeny lost in a Class 5A regional final for the fifth straight year. The last four losses have come by a total of 15 points.
“We just didn’t get one more shot or one more stop,” said Ankeny coach Nate Tobey, whose squad finished with a 10-13 record. “That’s really been the story of our season. We give ourselves a chance with our effort, but unfortunately that’s the way things go in basketball sometimes.
“It was tremendously fun to coach the girls this season, and they were an awesome group,” he added.
Northwest (18-4) defeated its CIML Conference rival for the third time this season. The two teams also battled down to the wire on Feb. 3 at Ankeny before the Wolves prevailed, 54-51.
On Tuesday, Northwest held a 23-15 advantage at halftime. The Wolves extended the margin to 31-22 after three quarters, but Tobey knew that the game was far from over.
“I really was (expecting a comeback), just because we’ve done that several times this year,” he said. “When our backs are against the wall in the fourth quarter, we’ve done that five or six times this season. Unfortunately, in a lot of those situations, you just can’t get one more stop or one more shot to fall. That was the story again tonight.”
Ankeny battled back and tied the score at 34-34 with 2 minutes 49 seconds left. A long 3-point goal by Romey Croatt–just the second trey of the game for Northwest–put the Wolves back in front.
The Hawkettes still trailed by just 38-37 with 1:18 remaining, but they never scored again. Northwest eventually sealed the win at the free-throw line, where the Wolves connected on 15-of-20 attempts.
“We got some good looks at the rim and from 3 in the fourth quarter that just didn’t fall for us,” Tobey said.
Jayla Williams led Ankeny with 20 points, eight rebounds, three assists and three steals. She had scored 14 and 26 points in the previous two games against the Wolves.
Kyla Schaapveld had six points for the Hawkettes, Reagan Baldwin chipped in five, and Savannah Gage added four. It was the final game in an Ankeny uniform for Gage and three other seniors.
Gage, who surpassed the 1,000-point career milestone midway through the season, will play for St. Thomas next year.
“It’ll be so different not having her in the program,” Tobey said. “She was such an impactful player for four years for us, and that’ll be a big adjustment and big shoes to fill.”
Ainsley Kiene grabbed eight boards for the Hawkettes, who were outrebounded by a 35-27 margin. Croatt led Northwest with 10 points and nine rebounds.
The Wolves will play No. 6 Cedar Rapids Prairie (20-4) in a Class 5A quarterfinal on Monday at 3:15 p.m. at Wells Fargo Arena.
