(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
Physicality and scrappiness have been two of the key ingredients for the Ankeny Centennial boys’ basketball team this season.
But the Jaguars just couldn’t find their groove on either end of the court during their road trip to Johnston on Friday, and the Dragons made them pay for it as Centennial suffered a 66-35 loss.
“We’re disappointed that we weren’t able to match the physicality and the scrappiness,” said Centennial coach Matt Delger. “We’ve shown it in past games, but it wasn’t there tonight.”
Johnston didn’t have much issue with moving the ball around, and it got three straight baskets from Nicare Cavil, Darren Grandon and Joshua Jenkins to quickly put the Jaguars down 7-0 to open up the game.
Hunter Runchey broke up the Dragons’ run and seemed to give Centennial the spark it needed.
Runchey and fellow junior Luke Mitchell combined for the Jaguars’ first four buckets of the game and led an 8-2 run that cut the team’s deficit to just one point.
Johnston’s Caleb Gbarjolo answered the run with a 3-pointer, and the struggles for the Jaguars ensued.
The Dragons closed out the first quarter on another 7-0 run, which bloomed into a 12-0 run to start the second quarter.
When Mitchell was able to get another shot to fall for the Jaguars, the deficit had already grown to double digits and Centennial just wasn’t able to climb out of the hole.
“They established the physicality, and they got that quick out-of-the-gate lead,” Delger said. “We were looking for a response, and we got a little bit of a response out of our guys. Then (Johnston) went on another run, and we just struggled to get the stops we needed.”
Runchey, Mitchell and sophomore Keaton Kasperbauer were the Jaguars’ only sources of offense in the first half until a late bucket by Brody Prill cut the deficit to 31-18.
Kasperbauer then scored five of his squad’s seven points in the third quarter and finished with a team-high nine points. Mitchell and Runchey added eight points apiece.
With backup units in the game, the Jaguars went on a 5-0 run later in the fourth quarter behind Drew Chriswisser, Kody Vonnahme and Lincoln Cole, but the score was far out of reach by then and Johnston cruised to its third straight win.
On top of struggling to get shots to fall consistently, the Jaguars were also without senior guard Kolby Bechen, who suffered an injury during the team’s victory at Southeast Polk on Tuesday.
Bechen had started all seven previous games, leaving the team without one of its sparkplugs.
“We definitely missed (Bechen) for sure,” said Delger, whose team committed 18 turnovers and went 0-for-9 from 3-point range. “We were excited for some opportunities for other guys. Just unfortunate how that game went.”
Nine different players scored for Johnston, led by Jenkins with 16 points and Cavil with 15. The Dragons improved to 3-5 in the CIML Conference and 4-5 overall, while Centennial’s record fell to 2-6 in the league.
The Jaguars have a quick turnaround as they will host a non-conference game against Fort Dodge on Saturday. The Dodgers (1-9) have lost seven straight contests after dropping a 78-58 decision to Sioux City West on Friday.
“This team has done a great job of growing from every film session,” Delger said. “We really critique stuff and pay attention to details. We’ll get after it (Saturday), watch film, hopefully learn from it and turn around and play well against Fort Dodge.”