Scott DeJong stood in the media interview room in the bowels of Wells Fargo Arena and beamed with pride even though the season had just ended for his Ankeny Centennial girls’ basketball team.
“It’s just been a tremendous run with these guys,” DeJong said of his nine seniors. “They’re my type of team. They play hard, they compete, and they work together. It’s just a great group of kids. I’ve just been really blessed to coach them.”
The fourth-ranked Jaguars finished with a 17-8 record after falling to No. 1 Johnston, 61-42, in the Class 5A semifinals on Thursday. The Dragons (25-0) will play No. 2 Dowling Catholic (22-3) for the state title on Friday at 6 p.m.
Mya Crawford and Ava Martin each had 13 points for Centennial. Another senior, Jaeden Pratt, added six points and seven rebounds.
“I’m super proud of this team,” said Pratt. “Coming here with nine seniors and knowing the defeat from last year (in the quarterfinals), I’m just proud of the way we fought back and made it to the semifinals and really represented Centennial well.”
The Jaguars’ senior class played in four state tournaments, reached the semifinals twice and went 69-28 during their high school career.
“I think after last year (when Centennial finished 14-9) I don’t know where everybody thought we’d be able to go this season, but we had girls step up that I don’t think anyone was prepared for,” said Crawford. “Ava had 20 on Monday (against Pleasant Valley), and I don’t think anybody ever thought that would happen. I’m just really proud of my teammates and how far we’ve come.”
The Jaguars were hoping to pull off an historic upset against their CIML Conference rival, but Johnston took the lead 36 seconds into the game and never looked back. The Dragons shot 63 percent from the field (17-of-27) and scored 19 points off 11 Centennial turnovers in the first half, allowing them to build a 17-point advantage at the break.
“We were defending well early on, but we turned the ball over and we knew that was something we couldn’t really do,” DeJong said.
Tillie Smith and Lizzie Beam each made a 3-point goal in the first quarter, keeping the Jaguars within 16-13 at the end of the period. But Johnston kept its poise and opened the second quarter with a 17-2 run to break it open.
“They don’t really (get rattled),” Johnston coach Chad Jilek said of his talented roster. “It’s just nice that we have so many different girls that we can go to in situations like that if we need a bucket.”
Senior forward Amani Jenkins provided a huge spark for the Dragons. After scoring off a rebound to open the period, Jenkins stepped outside and made a pair of 3-pointers to keep the flurry going.
“She has a variety of aspects to her game,” Pratt said. “The outside shot is definitely helping her game a lot; she’s not just a 6-2 post. We’re kind of vertically challenged on our team, but we tried to put up a good fight and she just had a solid game.”
Jenkins led Johnston with 19 points and had four of her team’s 10 steals. She went 3-of-5 from behind the arc and 8-of-11 overall.
“I’m definitely trying to work on (my outside shot) more, especially going to VT (Virginia Tech) next year,” said Jenkins, who also had two blocks. “It’s definitely what they look for me to do–to score in all positions.”
Jenica Lewis followed Jenkins’ back-to-back treys with one of her own, then Jaliyah Kinnetz later scored off a rebound at the buzzer to give the Dragons a 39-22 lead.
“I think we came out really strong,” Martin said. “I was proud of our first quarter, but they’re just a really good team and they made us pay.”
Centennial used an 8-1 run in the third quarter to close the gap to 45-33 on a steal and layup by Crawford, but the Dragons then answered with a 9-0 run that included seven points from Ari Phillips–who recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
“They played lights out,” DeJong said. “They weren’t easy shots, but they kept making them.”
The Jaguars made one final push in the fourth quarter. Martin scored on a bank shot, Crawford followed with an acrobatic layup, and Martin then connected on a 3-pointer to cut Johnston’s lead to 54-40.
Martin went 3-of-9 from deep after making six treys on Monday. She may have earned a spot on the all-tournament team by scoring 33 points in two games.
“They made it tough,” Martin said of the Dragons’ defenders. “I just think they were on me extra hard today. They definitely had some good defense.”
Jenkins halted Centennial’s run with another basket. Lewis then scored the Dragons’ last five points, finishing the game with 16 points and five assists.
Johnston scored 40 points in the paint and won the rebounding battle by a 30-24 margin.
“(Jenkins) is a big, aggressive, physical, athletic player,” DeJong said. “I thought we did a pretty good job on Lewis, but Jenkins was really hard to stop. And they’ve got the other kids, too.”
The Jaguars simply didn’t make enough shots to stay within striking distance. They shot just 31 percent from the field (13-of-42) and equaled their third-lowest offensive output of the season.
“Their defense was good,” said Crawford, who had five steals of her own. “They had a good plan going into the game. They obviously knew how I play, so they just packed the lane very well and we just weren’t able to adjust to their defense the way we should have. They’re a good team, and they had us scouted very well.”
Johnston extended its winning streak to 51 games and moved one victory away from a fourth state title in six years. Friday’s game will be a rematch of last year’s final, which was won by the Dragons, 48-36.
Jilek’s team will now prepare for another familiar foe after defeating Centennial for the 12th consecutive time.
“It makes the preparation a little easier, just because you really know each player individually,” Jilek said. “Teams might do some new things down here at the state tournament when it comes to offense, but we knew Scott DeJong’s team was going to play defense and get in your face. So we had our scout team for two days get up in their shorts in practice for an hour each day, just so they were used to that type of pressure.”
The Jaguars, meanwhile, can look ahead to the future. Beam, a sophomore guard, will be back next year along with junior forward Rylyn Boeding and junior guard Maize Smith.
“We had three kids who played a lot,” DeJong said. “And our eighth grade class is a really good class, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
