The Ankeny Centennial girls’ basketball team took a lot of positives away from Tuesday’s game at Dowling Catholic.
After dropping a 79-38 decision to the third-ranked Maroons on Dec. 9, No. 11 Centennial traveled to West Des Moines for the rematch and trailed by just two points at halftime before Dowling pulled away for a 51-26 victory.
“We set some goals (that we were able to meet),” said Centennial coach Chris Harken. “We held them below their season average and we came out only down two at the half, and so we just saw a lot of growth. We lost to them by 41 the first time so having a little less discrepancy in the score tonight was a vast improvement as well.”
Rylyn Boeding scored eight of her 10 points in the first half for Centennial, including the Jaguars’ first five points of the game. Faith Perpich then scored the next five points to give her team an early 10-5 advantage.
Dowling tied the score at 12-12 by the end of the first quarter, then took a 21-16 lead on a pair of free throws by Ellie Muller late in the half. But Centennial’s Lizzie Beam then answered with a free throw and a basket to close the gap to 21-19 at the break.
“I was very proud of our first-half effort,” Harken said. “We slowed the ball down, we looked for our selective shots, and then defensively we probably played one of the best nights of defense we’ve had all year.”
Dowling then took control of the game behind the 6-foot-3 Muller, who scored the first seven points of the second half. After Beam answered with a 3-point goal, the Maroons then went on an 11-0 run to build a 39-22 lead after three quarters.
Muller eventually recorded a double-double, finishing with 22 points and 12 rebounds. The senior also had eight of her team’s 12 blocks.
Muller’s younger sisters also played key roles for the Maroons. Nikki had eight points and two steals, while Katie added six points, five rebounds and four assists.
Dowling’s length on defense caused some fits for Centennial, which shot just 19.1 percent from the field (9-of-47). The Jaguars shot better from 3-point range (4-of-12) than they did from inside the arc, where they connected on just 5-of-35 attempts (14.3 percent).
“We knew that was going to be a challenge all night,” Harken said. “We were hoping for a little better looks, but they really only gave us quick shots. We tried to capitalize as much as we could, but kudos to their defense.”
Boeding went 2-of-6 from 3-point range. She also had nine rebounds and two steals.
Beam chipped in nine points. Mylie Hatfield had six rebounds and two assists.
The Maroons improved to 9-2 in the CIML Conference and 14-2 overall. Centennial’s records dropped to 5-7 and 6-9.
The Jaguars will return to West Des Moines on Friday for another conference game at Valley. The No. 6 Tigers are 6-5 in the league and 9-6 overall.
Valley posted a 57-28 win at Centennial on Dec. 19.
