(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
Over the past couple of years, Jayla Williams has been the engine that’s kept the Ankeny girls’ basketball team moving.
The senior guard and future Creighton Bluejay checked off a major milestone while guiding the fourth-ranked Hawkettes to a 56-48 home win over No. 13 Waukee on Friday night.
Williams scored a game-high 23 points to lead the way and reached the 1,000-point career mark.
“It’s been a lot (of work),” Williams said. “Especially this year, our chemistry has been night and day difference from last year. This team loves each other on and off the court.”
Ankeny needed all 23 points it got from its all-stater if the Hawkettes wanted to successfully bounce back from their loss to No. 1 Johnston and defend their home court against a Waukee team battling to stay in the Class 5A rankings.
Both teams got off to a slow start offensively, and it was Williams that lifted up the Hawkettes before the team got settled in.
She scored Ankeny’s first seven points of the game and picked up the assist by kicking the ball out to fellow senior Allison Hawkins for a wide open 3-pointer. A late run by the Warriors gave them a 13-10 lead after the first quarter.
Williams tacked on six more points in the second period to bring her total up to 13 points before the half.
“I’m just so happy for all of her success, and there’s a lot more to come,” said Ankeny coach Nate Tobey. “There’s so much hard work and so much that’s gone into that. It’s been great to be able to witness that the last couple of years and even her freshman year when I wasn’t coaching them. She’s just such a worker and such a winner for us.”
With some outside shooting from Kyla Schaapveld and Reagan Baldwin, along with Ainsley Kiene’s first bucket of the game, the Hawkettes were able to take a 24-21 lead going into the break.
A free throw in the opening minutes of the second half left Williams sitting a single point shy of the 1,000-point mark, and she then crossed the threshold in signature fashion.
Williams blew past a defender, went downhill and scored at the bucket while drawing a shooting foul in the process. She then completed the and-one by sinking the free throw.
“(Waukee) played really hard, and I give them props for that,” Williams said. “But I feel like our team just kept fighting when our shots weren’t falling. We got to the rim, and we got a few foul calls that we needed in the end.”
The Warriors wouldn’t go away in their quest to try to knock off Ankeny, and a couple more big baskets were required for the Hawkettes to hold on.
Williams gave them a five-point lead early in the fourth quarter and came back to hit some free throws late in the game to make it 51-48.
“We just battled through adversity constantly whether it was missing some layups or some other players stepping up for (Waukee) and played great,” Tobey said. “So we just had to weather the storm, and our girls did a nice job at that and never folded.”
Ankeny shot just 34 percent from the field (17-of-50), but the Hawkettes got some support for Williams in the second half with big baskets from Kiene, Baldwin, Schaapveld and freshman Ali Aguirre to secure the victory.
Waukee tied things up at 44-44 when Schappveld knocked down her second 3-pointer to reclaim the lead for the Hawkettes.
“We all support each other really well,” Williams said. “It doesn’t matter who’s on that game. Ali has had some big games, I’ve had some big games, Reagan has hit like a million 3s in a game. We’ve all done well, we’ve all supported each other the same, and it’s really awesome to be a part of a team like that and it really shows on the court.”
Baldwin, Aguirre and Kiene all made trips to the free-throw line in the final quarter, and some efficient shooting kept the Hawkettes rolling.
Kiene went 5-of-6 at the charity stripe to ice the game and finished with 10 points, eight rebounds, five assists and three steals. Baldwin had eight points, while Aguirre and Schaapveld each added six.
“There’s nobody I’d rather have at the free-throw line just because I know how much time (Kiene) has put in since she was a young player,” Tobey said. “She’s so confident and has such a belief in herself. So we definitely trust her in those situations.”
Maryne Szalo had a double-double to lead Waukee, finishing with 16 points and 10 rebounds. Julia Van Keuren added 11 points.
Ankeny improved to 3-1 in the CIML Conference and 5-1 overall. The Warriors’ records dropped to 1-2 and 1-4.
Ankeny will return home on Tuesday to host a CIML game against Southeast Polk before closing out its December slate on Friday with a non-conference game at No. 11 Cedar Falls. The Rams are 0-3 in the league and 1-4 overall after losing at Waukee, 62-51, on Tuesday.
