(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
For almost the entire first half, Tuesday night in Waukee looked like it was going to be a traditional back-and-forth battle between two of the top five girls’ basketball teams in Class 5A.
But a 10-2 run in the final 2 minutes 44 seconds of the half by second-ranked Waukee Northwest completely changed things.
No. 4 Ankeny couldn’t stop the bleeding, and the Wolves went on to post a 73-41 victory.
“We played a decent first half that was good enough to give us a chance,” said Ankeny coach Nate Tobey. “From there, we just kind of let go of the rope. We had a hard time listening to what we were asking them to do and executing some basic things.”
The first 13 minutes of play between the Hawkettes and Wolves were about as back-and-forth as a game could go.
From an opening 3-pointer by Northwest junior Romey Croatt, the lead changed hands 13 times in the first half.
The Hawkettes got a couple pairs of baskets from senior Jayla Williams and freshman Ali Aguirre, along with a pair of 3-pointers from seniors Ainsley Kiene and Reagan Baldwin that helped Ankeny take the lead three times in the first quarter.
Williams scored three of Ankeny’s next four baskets in the second period with Baldwin knocking down her second trey of the half.
“I think it was a lot of the stuff we talked about going into the game,” Tobey said of the team’s early success. “Driving into space and moving the basketball first before we do that. Defensively, just taking away their open shots, which we didn’t do a great job of at the start of the game, but just well enough to to stay in it.”
Back-to-back scores from Williams gave Ankeny a 24-21 lead over Northwest with just under 3 minutes left to play, but that would be the last time the Hawkettes were ahead.
Northwest’s Grace McCann made a 3-pointer to tie the game before Leah Janulewicz put the Wolves ahead for good. They added another basket from Vana Bilic and a 3-pointer from Sadie McCann to cap off a 10-0 run that put Ankeny into a 31-24 hole.
Williams was able to add a pair of free throws before the half ended, and the Hawkettes drew up a play to find an open Kyla Schaapveld on a backdoor cut to open up the second half before the offensive struggles really set in.
Ankeny scored just two more baskets in the third quarter with Williams knocking down a triple to make it 38-31 and Kiene hitting another to close the gap to 44-34.
“It’s really hard (stopping Northwest),” Tobey said. “They put a lot of pressure on from the screening action they run. We didn’t guard that well and didn’t communicate well. Hopefully, we’ll get better at that as the season moves along.”
Williams scored another bucket in the fourth quarter to reach her team-high 18 points, and Baldwin added a third 3-pointer to finish with nine.
Those would be some of Ankeny’s last points as its only other bucket came on a late layup from junior Jenna Halbrook with the game out of reach.
Croatt led the Wolves with 16 points and eight rebounds. Sadie McCann had 14 points, four assists and four steals.
While Northwest improved to 12-3 in the CIML Conference and 15-4 overall, the Hawkettes’ records dropped to 9-6 and 13-7.
“I know we’ll bounce back well, practice hard the next few days and hopefully address this before (Johnston) on Friday,” Tobey said.
It’ll be an uphill fight for the Hawkettes if they don’t want to end the regular season with back-to-back losses as they gear up to host No. 1 Johnston. The Dragons are one step closer to their third consecutive undefeated season as they stretched their winning streak to 71 games with a 72-32 triumph at No. 11 Ankeny Centennial on Tuesday.
Ankeny lost the first meeting at Johnston, 74-51, on Dec. 9.
“For Friday, it’ll be a lot of the same stuff,” Tobey said. “Make Johnston play in the half court, take away their easy looks early in possessions and offensively finding a way to take care of the ball and get good shots each possession.”
