(Story by Stephen McDaniel)
To the delight of the Ankeny Centennial student section, Carter Gustafson checked into Friday’s boys’ basketball game for the Jaguars with about 30 seconds left to play.
The senior guard’s fast-break layup in the final seconds was the perfect way to close out Centennial’s 61-44 victory to sweep the season series against visiting Southeast Polk.
Well, almost the perfect way.
“He should’ve dunked it,” senior guard Kolby Bechen said with a smile after scoring a team-high 12 points. “It was awesome (to see Gustafson score). He’s been working hard all year. To finally see him get in and do that, it’s great.”
The Jaguars have prided themselves all season long on their ability to play unselfishly and be able to spread the ball around.
That brand of basketball played a big role in helping Centennial finish with a 4-12 record in the CIML Conference while improving to 6-12 overall.
The Jaguars outscored Southeast Polk by an 18-8 margin in the fourth quarter to seal the win. They finished the night just shy of having six different scorers finish in double figures.
“It feels really good,” Bechen said. “It’s good to sweep (the Rams), and it was just a good win today.”
Sophomore McClain Gorsh followed up his 13-point effort on Tuesday against Johnston with 11 points on Friday. Senior Brody Prill, juniors Hunter Runchey and Luke Mitchell, and sophomore Keaton Kasperbauer each added nine points apiece.
Gustafson’s bucket was just the perfect way to spread some of the wealth down the bench.
“Lots of contributors, the ball is moving which is good, and everybody’s aggressive and confident,” said Centennial coach Matt Delger. “That’s what we want.”
Runchey was only able to play one half for the Jaguars after tweaking an ankle. He scored all nine of his points before halftime.
But even without its leading scorer on the court, Centennial’s ability to have multiple offensive options helped the Jaguars stay ahead of Southeast Polk before pulling away in the fourth quarter.
Prill scored seven of his points in the first half as Centennial built a 28-19 advantage. Gorsh made two of his three 3-pointers before the break.
Kasperbauer then contributed his first three baskets of the game in the third quarter to keep his team in front.
“We just had to slow down the pace and just play our game,” Bechen said. “We got a little sped up there in the third (period). We settled in, we got their main guys in foul trouble, and we just ended it from there.”
Bechen scored seven of his 12 points in the fourth quarter as Centennial’s lead grew to double digits. Mitchell, Prill, Kasperbauer and Gorsh each scored in an 8-0 run that pushed the margin to 16 points.
It was the sixth consecutive loss for the Rams, who finished 3-13 in the conference and dropped to 7-13 overall.
“We’ve grown up this year,” Delger said. “Now you see some guys out there know how to close a game. They played off each other. Traps are flying around and they just did a great job at taking care of the ball, hitting free throws when we needed to and closing the game the way it needs to be closed.”
Centennial will turn right around and play again on Saturday. The Jaguars will travel to Waterloo West (7-11) for a non-conference game at Siddens Gymnasium, beginning at 4 p.m.
The Wahawks are coming off a 78-47 loss at Dubuque Wahlert on Friday.
“You want your team playing their best basketball at this point in the year, and you want to keep growing and going forward,” Delger said. “That was a huge (win) for us to finish the season the way we want to finish it and have some momentum going into the postseason.”
