Friday’s showdown between two of the top three girls’ basketball teams in Class 5A turned out to be a game of runs.
In the end, second-ranked Dowling Catholic held off No. 3 Ankeny’s final rally to post a 64-57 victory on the road. The Hawkettes lost despite shooting 61.1 percent from 3-point range (11-of-18).
“We just got down by a little too much to bring it all the way back, but it’s awesome to see the fight in these girls–we see it time and time again,” said Ankeny coach Nate Tobey. “We’ve really gotten a lot better since our (last) game before the break, and we’ll just keep working.”
Junior guard Katie Muller poured in a game-high 29 points as the Maroons improved to 5-1 in the CIML Conference and 10-1 overall. Ankeny’s records dropped to 4-2 and 7-2.
“They have a lot of long, quick guards that can all shoot,” said Ankeny senior Jayla Williams, who led the Hawkettes with 20 points, six rebounds, three steals and two blocks. “As Katie showed tonight, she’s really good from the perimeter and it’s hard to play teams like that when they have multiple, versatile players that are big and can play inside and outside.”
Williams scored 11 points in the first quarter as Ankeny took a 19-17 lead. A 3-point goal by Reagan Baldwin gave the Hawkettes a 24-20 advantage early in the second period.
Dowling then closed the half with a 16-2 run. Muller started the spurt with a pair of baskets, then later made a deep 3-pointer to put the Maroons ahead, 34-26, with 18 seconds to go before the break.
Muller had 18 of her points in the first half, 13 of them in the second quarter.
“The ball is in her hands all the time, and she has such great patience and tempo,” Tobey said. “She can just shoot over people with her size, and she’s done a great job.”
Freshman Adrienne Sears scored at the buzzer to give Dowling a 36-26 margin. She finished with nine points.
The Maroons increased their lead to 40-26 on a jumper by Muller early in the third quarter. Ankeny then answered with a 13-0 run, getting five points apiece from Williams and Baldwin before Ainsley Kiene connected on a 3-pointer to close the gap to 40-39 with 2:47 left in the period.
After Williams missed a potential go-ahead shot, Dowling got a driving layup from Tess Carmichael to ignite a 16-2 run. A basket by Madison Rice later capped the flurry, giving the Maroons a 56-41 lead with about 7 minutes remaining.
“They’re going to have a big run,” Tobey said of the Maroons. “We had some runs of our own, but you’ve just got to find a way to weather the storm and stop it from being a 12-0 run somehow. But they’re so talented and well coached, it’s tough to do.”
The Hawkettes refused to quit, though, and reeled off 10 unanswered points–five of them by Kyla Schaapveld. Ali Aguirre made two free throws to cut the deficit to 56-51 with 4:12 left.
However, Ellie Muller scored back-to-back baskets in a span of 27 seconds to give Dowling some breathing room. Katie Muller then followed with another deep trey to make it 63-51 with 2:20 to go.
“They would go on their runs, and I feel like we were still playing pretty hard even though our shots weren’t falling,” Williams said.
Kiene made two more 3-pointers in the last 1:08 to narrow the final margin. She had 15 points on 5-of-6 shooting from behind the arc and also dished out five assists, while Baldwin made all three of her 3-point attempts and added 11 points.
Rice had 11 points for Dowling, which has won the last seven meetings in the series–all but two of them by double digits. Ankeny has not defeated the Maroons since posting a 35-29 win on Jan. 25, 2022.
The game was a battle for second place in the conference between two teams whose only previous loss came to No. 1 Johnston. The Dragons are now 7-0 in the league.
The Hawkettes will travel to Urbandale on Tuesday for another conference game against the J-Hawks, who are 1-5 in the league and 2-7 overall. Urbandale posted a 61-47 victory over visiting Southeast Polk on Friday to end a 53-game losing skid in the CIML.