After being briefly tied up at 2-2 at the start of the first quarter, the Jaguars outscored the Bobcats 21-0 and take a 23-2 at the end of the quarter.

“It came down to that they were ready to play from the start and got a good jump on us and we weren’t ready,” Marshalltown head coach Mike Appel said. “We got down early and we kind of folded and really kind of quit to be honest. We had a hard time scoring the ball. Once its 23-2 after the first quarter its obviously tough. We have to respond the right way early on and really put a halt to it and say we aren’t going to allow this to happen, we are going to score and do some things that are going to get us going so we don’t get ourselves that deep of a hole.

“Our mindset is to try and get three stops in a row and every time we do that it starts over. We didn’t do that a single time tonight. They had their way with us. They really just dominated us from the start. That’s the story. Looking at that second quarter they beat us 17-23 which isn’t terrible but when you are down that far it is just too hard.”

A distinct difference between the two teams was Ankeny Centennial’s height advantage which allow the Jaguars (8-1) to own the paint as well as the boards.

T-R PHOTO BY ANDREW ABADIE

“They moved the ball well in our zone,” Appel said. “Their bigs we rebounding well out. It seemed like every time we had missed shots, they were getting those second opportunities off the offensive rebounds. We had a really hard time of keeping them out the glass. They did a good job of finding those bigs inside and were cutting off of them. Really just focusing on attacking the rim and not settle for 3-point shots and they did a really good job of executing.”

Free throws were another difference maker as the Jaguars 13-of-16 from the line compared to Marshalltown’s two. At the end of the first half, the Bobcats trailed 46-19.

Out of the half, the Jaguars outscored Marshalltown 19-8 in the third quarter but the Bobcats did manage to outscore Ankeny Centennial 7-5 in the final quarter.

Off the bench for Marshalltown, Justin Melde had a team-leading 11 points in which he notably made three 3-pointers on the night.

“I thought Justin Melde played well,” Appel said. “He shot the ball well when he was open. That’s his role with our team. If he is open. He is going to catch and shoot it. He made his shots tonight. We have to have that from him. If we can have two or three made 3-pointers from him that’s going to help us tremendously. I was pleased with Justin and with how well he shot it tonight.”

T-R PHOTO BY ANDREW ABADIE

Armonniey Thomas scored eight points all of which came in the first half and Drake Kapayou had nine points which all notably came from 3-pointers.

Marshalltown will travel to Mason City on Friday with tipoff set for 7:45 p.m.

“We have to understand what we have to fix with ourselves and get ready for Mason City,” Appel said. “Mason City is a very beatable team. If we play them the right way, then we can beat them. They have to understand that we can’t do this against Mason City. We can’t repeat ourselves. We have to learn from it and get better and continue to progress that way.”

Ankeny Centennial 67, Marshalltown 34

At Marshalltown

T-R PHOTO BY ANDREW ABADIE

Centennial (8-1) — Jaron Crews 4 2-3 11, Colin McAleer 2 3-3 9, Preston Kelling 3 1-1 10, Cody McCullough 7 6-6 20, Micah Johnson 4 1-1 9, Cade Macke 0 0-0 0, Caleb Van Meter 1 0-2 3, Brady Petersen 0 0-0 0, D’Eric Smith 2 0-0 5, Eugene Bukenya 0 0-0 0, Brock Jensen 0 0-0 0, Mike Joensen 0 0-0 0, Will Snyder 0 0-0 0, Karter Kester 0 0-0 0, Justin Hollinrake 0 0-0 0. TOTALS 23 13-16 67

Marshalltown (3-6) — Armonniey Thomas 3 2-2 8, Austin Shomo 0 0-0 0, Drake Kapayou 3 0-0 9, Will Van Buren 0 0-0 0, Trevor Stamp 0 0-0 0, Drake Polley 2 0-0 4, Justin Melde 4 0-0 11, Grant Greazel 0 0-0 0, Sean Nyuon 0 0-0 0, Jokob Boriskey 0 0-0 0, Dwight Joar 0 0-0 0, Aidan DeVolder 1 0-0 2. TOTALS 12 2-2 34.

CENTENNIAL 23 23 19 5 — 67

MHS 2 17 8 7 — 34

3-Point Goals–AC 6 ( McAleer 2, Crews, Kelling, Van Meter, Smith), MHS 6 (Kapayou 3, Melde 3). Total fouls–AC 12, MHS 15. Fouled Out–none.