Junior guard Jed Rood scored 20 points, grabbed nine rebounds and had two blocks to lead the Ankeny Christian Academy boys’ basketball team to a 50-49 victory over visiting Southeast Warren in a Class 1A district semifinal on Friday. He made a layup with 12 seconds left for the go-ahead basket.
Rood has helped the Eagles to a 20-4 record. He averages a team-high 6.2 rebounds and 0.8 blocks while ranking second on the squad in scoring (13.9).
Here is some inside info on Rood:
Congratulations on the win over Southeast Warren. Your team had posted a 66-59 victory over the Warhawks on Feb. 5, so how did this game differ from the first one?
This game was different first off because district games always bring out the best in teams. Everybody knows at this time of year if you lose that’s it, so there’s never a point where the team we’re playing is going to accept a loss. It also was different because of the history between our school and (Southeast Warren). We run into them in a lot of sports in the postseason and have come away with a lot of victories including one on their home court last year in the second round, so we knew they were looking to get their (revenge) against us.
Can you describe how you scored the winning basket?
The basket I had at the end would’ve never happened if my teammate Isaac Venema didn’t grab the offensive rebound off of a free throw. He kicked it out to Tyson Fincham, who swung it over to me and I saw the lane with just one guy to get around and felt confident I was going to finish the floater.
Did the Warhawks get off a shot in the final seconds?
They called a timeout and had a play drawn up for Jameson Ewing to come off of a screen for a shot, but we contested it well and Marcus Pedersen batted the rebound out to midcourt and they had no time to get one more shot off.
Southeast Warren’s Lucas Dirkx had scored 43 points in the district quarterfinal against East Union. How did your team defend him, and what was the key to slowing him down?
My coaches trusted me to have the assignment of Lucas in our game on Friday, which was different from my matchup in the first game. My team trusted I didn’t need to get much help, which allowed us to not have to leave anybody else open so we’re able to play good team defense on all five of their players. I give a lot of credit to Tyson Fincham, though, for his work getting numerous steals and deflections as a help defender.
Your squad has now won seven straight games by an average of 23.7 points. Do you feel like you guys are playing your best ball of the season?
We absolutely believe we’re playing our best basketball right now. We play a lot of tough teams during our season to see what kind of team we are, and our last loss of the season (at Council Bluffs St. Albert on Jan. 24) was a wake-up call to us that we had to reset and reevaluate what our roles were. Now we all feel like we’re on the same page again.
Your team will now play at top-ranked Fort Dodge St. Edmond (21-2) in the district final on Tuesday at 7 p.m. What do you know about the Gaels from your scouting report?
We know the Gaels have returned all five starters from their state team last year and are a very solid defensive team with some big wins this year. They’ve got some scorers that we will have to be aware of at all times, but we know they aren’t invincible.
St. Edmond has won 11 consecutive games–10 of them by double digits. What will be the keys for your team to pull off the upset?
Our keys to victory are taking advantage of their defensive pressure. We know it’s coming, but I trust we can be smarter than their intensity. Defensively, we’ll have our matchups ready on their scorers with guys always ready to help. We all trust we’re playing a beatable team, and we just have to play harder than them on every play.
Senior forward Hunter Horn averages 26.3 points and 9.0 rebounds for the Gaels. Will it take a team effort to contain him?
Hunter Horn is a good player and has gotten it done offensively against a lot of good teams during his career. With that said, we know we’ll annoy him all game and make the other guys beat us. It is going take all of us being bought in, though, to make sure he doesn’t take over this game.
Your team lost in the substate final a year ago, and now you are two wins away from advancing to state. If you can pull it off, what would that mean to you to qualify for state?
It would mean a lot for me and all the guys on the team to make the state tournament. We came so close last year and know what it takes, but we know we don’t have a clear path. We need to handle business on Tuesday and then turn around and get ready for Saturday. At a school like (Ankeny Christian), large achievements from our sports teams are felt throughout the whole school so we want to get it done for our program and everyone that’s been a part of it.
Would you like to play basketball in college?
Playing college basketball has always been a goal of mine. I’ve played basketball for as long as I can remember so four more years after high school would be a blessing to me.
Do you know what you plan to study yet?
I’m still not entirely sure what I would like to study.