(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
The Ankeny Centennial boys’ basketball team had a chance to claw its way back into Tuesday’s game and cut its deficit down to single digits out of halftime.
But despite a huge scoring night from junior forward Luke Mitchell, the Jaguars just weren’t able to keep pace with eighth-ranked Urbandale and dropped a 60-39 decision on their home court.
“It was a tough night,” said Centennial coach Matt Delger. “Urbandale looked really good out there. They’ve got a bunch of shot makers. Some of the shots were well guarded, we contested them, and they were still hitting some tough shots. They’ve proven on film they’ve done that all year in our league.”
Centennial struggled to score out of the gate with the J-Hawks using a zone defense that limited the Jaguars to just three points in the opening quarter.
Urbandale’s senior duo of Jake Pargeon and Quentin Teeter aided the J-Hawks in taking a 14-3 lead until back-to-back buckets from Mitchell got Centennial going a little bit.
Mitchell turned out to be the Jaguars’ main source of offense, finishing with 18 points in the loss. He also grabbed 12 rebounds for a double-double while leading his team to a 27-19 advantage on the boards.
Sophomore Keaton Kasperbauer and senior Kolby Bechen were both able to get shots to fall before the end of the first half, but it was Mitchell’s scoring touch that nearly pulled them back into things in the second half.
“He really leads by example for us and you can see how hard he works on defense, how he sprints the floor in transition, and he was a rock for us against the zone,” Delger said of Mitchell. “He handled the ball against the zone quite a bit. He’s playing at a high level on both ends of the floor. He’s (steadily improved) all season, and I think he’ll keep improving.”
Mitchell scored the Jaguars’ first four buckets in the third quarter and led them on an 8-4 run that put them in a spot to cut the deficit down to single digits with more than a quarter left to play.
Pargeon and Teeter proved to be the two biggest thorns in Centennial’s side as they combined for 42 of Urbandale’s 60 points. Pargeon led all scorers with 23 points and Teeter contributed 19, and they both had four steals as well.
Teeter did most of his damage in the first half, when he scored 13 points.
“We had a good game plan,” Delger said. “What deflates you is when you work your butt off all possession and then they can go to ISO mode and get some off-balance shot or deep contested 3 and hit it and that can slowly deflate you.”
The J-Hawks extended their lead to 39-22 by the end of the third quarter.
Centennial got some more scoring out of Mitchell, along with a 3-pointer from Bechen and a bucket and a triple from junior Drew Chriswisser in the fourth quarter, but it wasn’t nearly enough to keep up with the J-Hawks–who closed things out with a 7-0 run.
Bechen finished with eight points and six rebounds, going 2-of-6 from behind the arc. Drew Hansen had a pair of steals.
“It was really good to see (Chriswisser) in there hitting shots,” Delger said. “He’s another kid that’s worked really, really hard and deserves to be out there.”
Junior guard Hunter Runchey, the Jaguars’ leading scorer at 12 points a game, was held without a point for the first time this season.
The win allowed Urbandale to snap a two-game losing skid and sweep the season series. The J-Hawks improved to 6-4 in the CIML Conference and 7-4 overall, while Centennial’s records fell to 2-9 and 4-9.
The Jaguars will play another conference game on Friday at No. 3 Dowling Catholic. The Maroons won the first meeting at Centennial, 46-42, on Dec. 9.
Dowling is 8-1 in the league and 12-1 overall after rolling to a 76-43 win at Valley on Tuesday. The Maroons’ only loss came at No. 2 Waukee Northwest, 72-52, on Jan. 13.
“We’ve got to get back to work, try to learn from this (game) and improve,” Delger said. “Dowling is a really good team. We’re going to have to be better with physicality, and we’ll have to hit our shots.”
