The Ankeny Centennial boys’ basketball team fought an uphill battle on Friday night.
The Jaguars nearly climbed out of an 11-point hole at Urbandale before their rally fell short, resulting in a 42-39 loss to the J-Hawks.
Centennial had a chance to force overtime in the final seconds, but a deep 3-pointer by Keaton Kasperbauer bounced off the rim as time expired.
“We got the right guy with the shot at the end for the tie,” said Centennial coach Matt Delger. “It just didn’t go for us.”
Davis Hardersen scored 15 points as Urbandale earned its first win of the season. The J-Hawks improved to 1-2 in the CIML Conference, while Centennial dropped to 0-4 in the league.
Luke Mitchell led the Jaguars with 12 points, 10 of them in the first half. Kasperbauer and Hunter Runchey each added eight.
Centennial was unable to overcome 21 turnovers against the J-Hawks, who used a matchup zone defense to produce some easy baskets at the other end of the court.
“They get in those passing lanes, and they probably tip the ball more than anybody in our league,” Delger said. “We just turned it over too many times, and they got a lot of points off transition.”
Urbandale took the lead for good midway through the first half, when the J-Hawks went on an 11-0 run to break away from a 9-9 tie. Quentin Teeter turned a steal into a dunk to make it 13-9 with 2:36 left in the first quarter, then capped the run about 4 minutes later when he banked in a 3-pointer.
The Jaguars closed the gap to 27-21 at halftime, then got seven straight points from Kolby Bechen to pull even closer in the second half. Bechen’s 3-pointer cut Urbandale’s lead to 34-30 with 7:03 remaining.
After the J-Hawks answered with a 6-0 run to make it 40-30, Centennial rallied once again. Kasperbauer made a 3-pointer with 4:14 to go to cut Urbandale’s lead to 40-35, then later scored a basket in the lane to make it 42-39 with 2:20 left.
The J-Hawks made only one basket in the final period–a trey by Hardersen with 5:54 on the clock.
“When they had to play us in the half court, we were doing pretty darn good (on defense),” Delger said. “And we were rebounding, which was great. It was just the turnovers (that hurt us) for sure.”
Neither team scored in the final 140 seconds. Centennial’s Drew Hansen missed a 3-pointer with 1:11 left, then the Jaguars got a defensive stop before Kasperbauer failed to convert on a drive with about 10 seconds to go.
The ball went out of bounds off the J-Hawks, giving Centennial one more chance that led to Kasperbauer’s missed 3-pointer.
The Jaguars will now have a week off before hosting a conference game against Valley next Friday. The Tigers are also 0-4 in the league after dropping a 73-40 decision at Dowling Catholic on Friday.
