*photo courtesy of Katie Furland/AP Yearbook
The Aplington-Parkersburg basketball teams will travel to Columbus Catholic for an NICL doubleheader Friday, which’ll air on 99 The Wave and RadioOnTheGo’s YouTube channel.
The #15 (2A) girls have been sharp in their first three games, with four players scoring in double figures while cutting down on turnovers with 13 per game. Lorna Bernard leads with 14.3 points per game after a strong start to her freshman season. Columbus (0-1) fell 62-19 to Jesup in its season opener Tuesday.
The Falcon boys (2-0) took care of business against Sumner-Fredericksburg and AGWSR Monday and Tuesday to begin the season. Sophomore Tyler Wedeking leads with 24.5 points per game, partially making up for the absence of Benny Waller due to a hand injury. Varsity newcomers Charlie Wessels and Cole Brouwer have provided a presence in the post, which had been missing for the last two seasons. Head Coach Aaron Thomas.
“Once we lost Mason Ridder last year, and Mason was also out his junior year, so really the last two years we played without a post presence,” Head Coach Aaron Thomas says. “But Cole Brouwer is about a 6’4″, 200 plus pound sophomore, very strong, very physical. Charlie Wessels being about a 6’5″, almost 6’6″ freshman, I think a big credit goes to his summer lifting, just with the coordination and things. Even his growth watching him play lower level football, I think really helped him. So they will give us more size without a doubt, and both do have skills, so we can throw it in there and they can get baskets where I think against a lot of teams they will have to help. I don’t know if they’ll be able to guard them one on one.”
Columbus began its season with an 82-48 win over Jesup Tuesday, where they shot 52 percent. Amani Robinson scored 24 points along with 19 by Elijah Evans.
Coverage will start at 6:00 p.m., followed by the tipoff at 6:15.
