Johnston boys basketball advances to Class 4A semifinals with win over Ankeny
Johnston boys basketball defeated Ankeny, 55-53, to advance to the semifinal round of the Class 4A Iowa high school state tournament Wednesday. The Dragons will face No. 7 seed Cedar Rapids Prairie, which beat No. 2 Cedar Falls, in Thursday's semifinal.
This was Ankeny’s first trip back to the state tournament since the Hawks won the 4A title in 2020. Johnston was at Wells Fargo Arena last season when the Dragons lost to Waukee in the championship game.
“We missed a lot of shots in that first half, but we told our kids to stay confident, keep shooting the ball down there,” Johnston head coach Brian Frick said postgame. “We have good players and we believe in them. They believe in each other.”
South Dakota signee Steven Kramer led the Dragons with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Trey Lewis was close behind with 18 points, and Samuel Tornabane had seven blocks.
Carson Johnson led the Hawks with 10 points and had three assists.
Johnston struggles from long range but still wins
As one of the best distance shooters in the state, it’s not often that Johnston’s Lewis blanks on treys in the first half and doesn’t score his first points of the game until the 5:05 mark of the second quarter.
But it wasn’t just Lewis. Almost all of Johnston’s players struggled to get their 3-point shots to fall in the first half. Kramer and Tornabane each had one, but the Dragons went 2-for-12 overall in the first half from outside, just 16.7%.
Lewis picked up the scoring in the second half, but he went without a 3-pointer all game. The Dragons will need Lewis to shoot better from the arc down the stretch if they want to win the state tournament. Don't expect two straight games with zero 3s from Lewis.
The future looks bright for Ankeny basketball
Two of the Hawks’ starting five players are sophomores: Lio Aguirre and Carson Johnson. And both athletes are dominant forces in Ankeny’s system.
The Hawks had two scorers – Aguirre and Johnson – with a team-high five points in the first half. On top of their scoring success, Aguirre had three assists in the first 16 minutes, and Johnson had one. Johnson had one steal and Aguirre recorded one block.
Johnson finished with a team-high 10 points, with two 3-pointers. He also recorded four steals, all of which were against Lewis. Aguirre recorded seven points, three assists and two rebounds.
“(Carson) is a fearless young guy, put in a lot of time,” Ankeny head coach Brandt Carlson said. “This defense has been impressive this year and improved their game. (He’s) just turned into a young leader for us and we’re excited about the future.”
Strong defensive showing from both teams
Ankeny and Johnston are both programs that put on high-scoring performances, but it was their respective defenses that shined in Wednesday’s quarterfinal.
The Hawks had nine total steals, compared to Johnston’s one. Four of those steals, as mentioned, came from Johnson off Lewis and Ankeny scored seven points off turnovers. Ryan Crandall and Maddox Ward each had two steals and Karson Wehde finished with one.
Johnston was a blocking machine in Wednesday’s game, with 10 total against the Hawks. That was almost all thanks to Tornabane, who had seven. Kramer recorded two blocks and Masen Ryan finished with one.
“Sam’s come a long way for us these last seven or eight weeks,” Frick said. “He’s long, he’s skilled too, making two 3-pointers for us. But he really has a presence down there … and he does a good job protecting the rim and now he’s been able to step out and shoot the ball.”
Alyssa Hertel is a college sports recruiting reporter for the Des Moines Register. Contact Alyssa at ahertel@dmreg.com or on Twitter @AlyssaHertel.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Johnston beats Ankeny in 2022 Iowa boys basketball state tournament
