A late scoring drought resulted in a third consecutive loss for the Ankeny boys’ basketball team.
The seventh-ranked Hawks were held to just one basket in the final 4 minutes and dropped a 54-52 decision to visiting Johnston on Friday. It was the fourth straight win for the Dragons, who avenged an earlier five-point loss while wrapping up a fifth-place finish in the CIML Conference.
“It’s maybe the story of our season,” said Ankeny coach Brandt Carlson. “We’re really, really close and yet we don’t feel the reward of that.”
Ankeny took a 44-41 lead when Rio Aguirre made a 3-point goal with 6 minutes 11 seconds left. He later converted four straight free throws to give his team a 50-46 margin with 3:43 to go.
However, Ankeny then committed some costly turnovers down the stretch. That allowed Johnston to go on a 7-0 run that was capped off by a 3-pointer from Emri Jones, who put the Dragons ahead, 53-50, with 1:23 remaining.
The Hawks answered with a driving layup by Jasani Campbell with 1:08 to go. They then got the ball back when Johnston turned it over with 33.8 seconds left.
Aguirre was tied up on a drive to the hoop with 6.2 seconds on the clock, but Ankeny was awarded the ball on the alternate possession rule. The Hawks then turned it over on the ensuing inbounds pass.
“We had our chances for sure,” Carlson said. “It’s just how basketball goes sometimes. A call or two goes your way or it doesn’t. There were a couple that could have gone either way. We thought we had an and-one, and it turned into a travel. Then we had a jump ball and got it out of bounds and couldn’t execute without any timeouts.”
Ankeny quickly had to commit three fouls to put the Dragons on the free-throw line. Nicare Cavil was fouled with 3 seconds left and made the second of his two attempts to produce the final margin.
Jones then intercepted a long inbounds pass from Kael Roush to seal the victory. Johnston finished 8-8 in the league and improved to 11-8 overall, while the Hawks’ records fell to 6-9 and 9-10.
Ankeny will likely fall out of the Class 4A rankings from the Iowa High School Athletic Association on Monday, which is also when the substate pairings will be announced. The Hawks were in position to earn a top seed before suffering back-to-back-to-back losses to No. 3 Waukee Northwest, Urbandale and Johnston this week.
“I’m sure the guys are disappointed because it’s been a tough week for us overall,” Carlson said. “When you lose three in a row this late in the season, it’s not very fun. So we’ll probably be a 2 seed, but there are still some good things out there for us.”
Aguirre scored 21 points in the loss. Campbell finished with 19.
Cavil led all players with 23 points. Johnston also got 17 points from Tino Daye Jr., including a layup with 3:26 left that sparked the Dragons’ decisive run.
Ankeny will host a non-conference game against Dallas Center-Grimes (12-7) on Monday. The Mustangs are riding a four-game winning streak that includes a 74-65 victory at Pella on Friday.
