(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
The Ankeny girls’ basketball team needed a big bounce-back victory coming off its rivalry loss against Ankeny Centennial.
The fifth-ranked Hawkettes went back to the drawing board, corrected some of the mistakes from Tuesday’s loss, and it resulted in a 50-40 road win in a top-five matchup against No. 4 Valley on Friday.
“It feels so great,” said freshman Ali Aguirre, who scored 20 points and grabbed nine rebounds in the victory. “We all just play really well together, and it was a really good effort tonight. It was a really big win against a good opponent, and I’m so happy we came out on top.”
One of the things that the Hawkettes aimed to tighten up from their loss to Centennial was their defense, which allowed 65 points three nights earlier.
They felt that they gave up a couple of easy buckets that ended up hurting them in the end, so they made sure to make things much more difficult for the Tigers and it paid off.
The Hawkettes limited Valley to a season-low 40 points, which included a first half where they held the Tigers to a season-low 14 first-half points.
Ankeny trailed 9-6 in the first quarter when senior guard Jayla Williams scored back-to-back baskets to spark a big run for the Hawkettes.
“(The Centennial game) showed us what we needed to get better at, and that was really defense and our communication with each other,” said Ankeny coach Nate Tobey. “That was awesome tonight. There’s still some lapses here and there, but it was much better than what it was (against the Jaguars). So two days to make progress, and we made a lot of it.”
Ankeny ended the first quarter on a 6-2 run before holding Valley to just three points in the second period, when the Hawkettes built a 24-14 advantage.
The first-half defense helped Ankeny pull ahead, but it was how the Hawkettes responded to Valley clawing back in the second half that secured the 10-point victory.
Ankeny weathered an early storm out of the break by the Tigers when a 3-pointer from junior Tylee Weite pulled Valley back within four points.
That’s when Aguirre scored a basket to ignite a spark for Ankeny. It was just the Hawkettes’ second bucket of the quarter, but it kicked off a 12-2 run that extended the margin back to 14 points by the end of the period.
“I felt like I had a lot of mismatches tonight and just have to keep going after it,” said Aguirre, who went 7-of-11 from the field. “Even if I missed a shot, I was still trying to get the ball, keep trying what I know will work and just persevering got me hot.”
Valley’s Baileigh Uthoff attempted to spearhead another rally attempt that got the Tigers back within six points in the fourth quarter before a pair of big baskets from Williams and some trips to the free-throw line for Aguirre and Ainsley Kiene helped Ankeny close things out.
Williams followed up her career-high 33-point outing against Centennial with another strong game, matching Aguirre with 20 points. She scored 20 or more for the eighth time in 13 games this season.
Aguirre, meanwhile, had scored just six points against the Jaguars.
“Me and Jayla are really strong in the post, and that’s how we really got this lead going,” Aguirre said. “We just kept feeding it to each other, getting and-ones, strong finishes and just doing really well down low.”
Kiene also played a huge role in the win. She stuffed the stat sheet with seven points, 14 rebounds, three assists and two steals.
Callie Stull made her first 3-point goal of the season during Ankeny’s run in the second quarter. The win allowed the Hawkettes (6-4, 9-4) to sweep the season series and move into a tie for fourth place with Valley (6-4, 8-5) in the CIML Conference.
Ankeny will try to sweep another league foe on Tuesday when it travels to Waukee for a rematch against the Warriors, who dropped a 56-48 decision in the first meeting last month.
Waukee is 2-7 in the conference and 3-9 overall. The Warriors have not played since losing on Tuesday to No. 1 Johnston, which will visit Ankeny on Friday.
“(This win) feels great, especially considering the week that we’ve had and all the ups and downs that have come along the way,” Tobey said. “Just to see these girls weather the storm, especially the seniors, and see how they bounce back from things was huge.”
