The Ankeny girls’ basketball team moved one step closer toward ending its state tournament drought.
The sixth-ranked Hawkettes rolled to a 57-21 victory over visiting Sioux City North in a Class 5A regional semifinal on Saturday. They are now one win away from advancing to the state tournament for the first time since 2013–before the community of Ankeny split into two high schools.
The Stars finished the season at 6-17.
“We played well defensively,” said Ankeny coach Nate Tobey, whose team improved to 14-8. “We had a lot of good shots on offense that didn’t fall, but overall we’re happy to get out of there healthy and with some positive momentum for Tuesday.”
Ankeny took a 12-3 lead at the end of the first quarter and held a 32-6 advantage at halftime. The Hawkettes extended the margin to 52-15 after three periods.
It took awhile for Ankeny to solve the Stars’ zone defense.
“Most of the teams up that way play zone, including them,” Tobey said. “They played a little bit different zone than what we were expecting, but overall we handled it well enough to get the win.”
Jayla Williams led the Hawkettes with 21 points. Ali Aguirre chipped in 14, and Ainsley Kiene added 10.
Williams has scored 463 points in 22 games. She needs 21 points to tie the single-season school record of 484 that was set by Erica Junod in 1998-99.
Williams is also approaching the school’s career scoring mark. She is 34 points away from tying the record of 1,392 that was set by Nicky Wieben in 2002-05.
Ankeny will host No. 11 Sioux City East (17-5) in the regional final on Tuesday at 7 p.m. The Black Raiders advanced by defeating Council Bluffs Lincoln for the third time this season, 68-47.
“They can really shoot it and get up and down the floor,” Tobey said. “They can put the pressure on.”
Sioux City East has a traditionally strong program. The Black Raiders have won at least 15 games for eight straight years and knocked off a Caitlin Clark-led Dowling Catholic squad in 2020 to reach the state tournament.
However, the CIML Conference is usually much better than the level of competition in western Iowa.
“It’s just hard to tell what they’ll bring to the table with just a few games on their schedule against really high-quality teams,” Tobey said.
This will be Ankeny’s sixth consecutive appearance in a regional final, but it’s only the second time during that stretch that the Hawkettes will have the home-court advantage. They’ve lost the last four regional finals by a combined total of 15 points.
