It’s not often that a high school basketball team can take some positives away from a 23-point loss.
But that was the case on Tuesday for the sixth-ranked Ankeny girls’ squad, which held a lead midway through the second quarter at No. 1 Johnston before the Dragons rallied for a 74-51 victory.
“That was where we expected to be,” said Ankeny coach Nate Tobey. “It was great all the way through just to be able to learn about our team. It’s still early in the season, and we’re still learning what works for us and what doesn’t work. Johnston certainly puts pressure on and forces you to learn quickly. But being in it as long as we were tonight will definitely help us in the long term.”
Jayla Williams poured in a game-high 22 points to lead Ankeny. The Creighton recruit is just 15 points shy of the 1,000-point career mark.
Williams converted a steal into a layup to give the Hawkettes a 22-21 lead with 5 minutes 23 seconds left in the half. She then made a 3-point goal at the 4:47 mark to make it 25-21, forcing Johnston coach Chad Jilek to call a timeout.
“It was good,” Williams said of her team’s comeback from an early 13-3 deficit. “We played really hard.”
Johnston then closed out the half with a 14-2 run to take the lead for good. Sophomore reserve Paige Andernacht scored all 12 of her points on 5-of-6 shooting before halftime.
“We have to help off of somebody, and (Andernacht) does a nice job of getting into open areas and hitting the boards on the back side of their offense,” Tobey said. “We’ll look into it for the next game how we can do a better job of taking that away.”
Andernacht converted an and-one off an assist from Jenica Lewis to put the Dragons ahead, 28-27, with 2:09 remaining in the half. She added two more baskets in the next minute, then grabbed an offensive rebound and converted another and-one with 30.7 seconds left to give Johnston a 35-27 advantage at halftime.
“I feel like we went on a little run, and that made them call timeout,” Williams said. “Then their bench players came in, and we kept bailing them out letting her get offensive rebounds and she had a couple of and-ones. They just kept building off that and kept scoring.”
Ankeny still trailed by just 39-32 after Ainsley Kiene scored on a drive early in the third quarter. The Hawkettes had a chance to pull closer, but Lewis then stole the ball and threw a behind-the-back pass to Kelli Kalb for a layup that made it a three-possession game.
Lewis, who had two steals and four assists, scored 21 points to lead five Dragons in double figures. The Notre Dame commit made back-to-back treys from well beyond the arc to extend the margin to 59-41 early in the final period.
“It was great to play against her, especially because she’s going to a great school next year,” Williams said. “It’ll set me up for next year playing against bigger and better girls in college. I think it really prepares me.”
Ari Phillips had 13 points for the Dragons, Mariah Dixon chipped in 12, and Kalb added 10. Phillips and her twin sister, Adaya, each contributed eight rebounds and two blocks.
“Johnston keeps coming at you,” Tobey said. “We did a nice job of not backing down the entire game–we made a nice run even after they got way up. It was good to see that resilience tonight.”
Kiene had 11 points for Ankeny, including a trio of 3-pointers. Ali Aguirre added six.
Williams said the Hawkettes eventually wore down against Johnston’s constant pressure.
“It got pretty tiring,” she said. “They run the floor and they’re good at offense and defense, so it did have a little wear and tear on us. I thought it showed a little bit in the fourth (quarter).”
The two-time defending Class 5A champion Dragons improved to 3-0 in the CIML Conference and 5-0 overall while extending their winning streak to 57 games. Ankeny’s records dropped to 2-1 and 4-1.
The Hawkettes will host a rematch against Johnston on Jan. 23, when the Dragons will likely be strengthened by the return of senior guard Jaliyah Kinnetz.
“She’s been out all season, and she’ll be out until after winter break,” Tobey said of Kinnetz. “She’s a huge piece for them.”
Ankeny will host a conference game against No. 11 Waukee on Friday. The Warriors are 1-1 in the league and 1-3 overall after beating Southeast Polk for their first win, 62-51, on Tuesday.
