(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
It can take just a matter of seconds to completely change an outlook on a game, and now the Ankeny Centennial girls’ basketball team is hoping for the best for one of its senior leaders.
A scary fall and a temporary halt to the action late in the first half left Centennial without forward Rylyn Boeding for the remainder of Tuesday’s game, and a 79-38 loss to third-ranked Dowling Catholic took a backseat in the minds of the Jaguars as they worried about Boeding’s health.
“She was complaining about neck pain and when they tried to get her on the gurney, she had a little bit of back pain,” Centennial coach Chris Harken said afterwards. “The good news is that all of her extremities were moving, and she (responded) when we were asking her to do certain things. We’ll definitely be checking in on her, but it’s looking optimistic so hopefully it’s nothing major.”
There was just under 3 1/2 minutes left in the second quarter when Boeding grabbed an offensive rebound for the Jaguars, but in the process of coming back up with the ball, a bump knocked her backwards.
The fall caused the back of Boeding’s head to hit the floor and put a temporary halt to the game while the medical professionals attended to Boeding before helping her off the court via a stretcher.
Both teams were allowed a brief warmup period before they were able to resume the last few minutes before halftime.
But seeing a beloved teammate go down can certainly change an outlook on a game.
“We told them to just continue to play for (Boeding) and have that mindset,” Harken said. “Like, she would be here if she could have and kept fighting. She’s definitely our motivation and spirit on the team. It’s hard when your energy leader leaves the game in any situation, and it’s hard to gain that back.”
Even with a fully healthy squad, hosting the Maroons was going to be a tall task as Centennial faced its third straight opponent ranked among the top six squads in Class 5A.
Boeding and junior guard Lizzie Beam kept it a one-point game in the early stages before the Maroons rattled off a 14-0 run behind star sisters Ellie and Katie Muller.
Beam crossed into double figures in scoring during the second quarter before Boeding ultimately went down on the rebound and exited the game.
The Maroons went on a 9-4 run once the game resumed, came out of halftime to outscore Centennial 19-11 in the third quarter and 16-10 in the fourth to secure the victory.
“We had a really good start to the game,” Harken said. “(Boeding’s fall) was kind of a turn for us. We just kind of lost all our momentum at that point, and it’s hard with the time it took. We appreciate everything our paramedics do and thankful they responded so quickly. It kind of deflated us a bit and not just the injury, but the time itself. It was kind of hard to bounce back, but I think we have some girls that did their best to put that effort in.”
One of the bright spots for the Jaguars was getting to see a little bit of spark from some of the freshmen trying to make an impact.
Faith Perpich made her third varsity start and contributed nine points, Nyah Weger provided some more offense with five points in the third quarter off a fast break and a 3-pointer, and Alana Newman chipped in four points late while drawing the task of having to guard Ellie Muller.
“(The freshmen) seemed pretty fearless,” Harken said. “It was nice to see Nyah come off the bench and hit a couple of shots. We tried to get her a couple of looks the first couple games and they wouldn’t fall, so it was nice to see the ball go into the bucket for her.
“Alana continues to grow her game–tonight she stepped up into a big role and I felt like she did a good job. We’ve had confidence in Faith since the beginning and seeing her continue to develop and work hard has benefitted us,” he added.
Beam finished with 16 points for the Jaguars, who dropped to 0-3 in the CIML Conference and overall. She also had seven rebounds and three steals.
Katie Muller poured in 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds as Dowling improved to 2-0 in the league and 6-0 overall. Ellie Muller added 18 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.
Centennial will travel to Urbandale on Friday for another conference game against the J-Hawks, who are coming off a 39-33 loss at Pella Christian on Tuesday. Urbandale is 0-2 in the league and 1-4 overall.
“Hopefully, we don’t get too defeated from (the early losses to ranked teams) because they are very, very good teams we just played against,” Harken said. “Most likely all three will be at state and probably the second round of state. Hopefully, we continue to grow from it.”
Harken said on Wednesday that Boeding was resting at home.
“Her CT scans were negative, and she was released from the ER (on Tuesday) around 11:30 p.m.,” he said. “She left on her own will, but will have to wear a neck brace for at least a week. She still had some pain in her neck and lower back, but hopefully time will ease those pains and nothing lingers. She is such a trooper as she was worried about everyone else but herself!”
