The Aplington-Parkersburg basketball teams each defeated Wapsie Valley on the road Friday, as aired on 99 The Wave and RadioOnTheGo’s YouTube channel. The boys won 65-64 in comeback fashion, and the girls won 53-30.
The Falcon boys got all they could handle in the first half from the #2 (1A) Warriors. AP was dominated on the glass and had trouble getting stops on their way to a 34-17 halftime deficit. But two quick buckets to begin the third quarter sparked a rally. Tyler Wedeking heated up after being scoreless in the first half, pouring in 20 points in the second half. He made five straight three-pointers, the last of which gave the Falcons their first lead.
Wes Shirk had clutch shots and Charlie Wessels was instrumental in the paint to aid the comeback. Wedeking says they dug themselves out of a hole they created.
“As a team, we talked about it halftime, we had a terrible start,” Wedeking says. “I couldn’t shoot the ball in the first half, we came we didn’t come out with toughness we talked about, no toughness, no effort. They were getting every loose ball, we talked about that in halftime. And people were ready to go in the second half, that’s why in the second half we came back, because of the toughness and effort that we showed in the second half.”
Head Coach Aaron Thomas says it was one of the more resilient wins he’s seen.
“Just so proud of our kids,” Thomas says. “Wapsie out hustled us, out-toughed us the first half. We didn’t make shots, that didn’t help the matter, but just a testament to the toughness of our group. Charlie played well, wasn’t Cole’s best night, but he’s up cheering. Luke didn’t play as much. We went to Jaxson. Everybody was just cheering, and just it shows the importance of team and just the resilience and toughness of this bunch. So extremely happy for them. Just stick with it. For Tyler to not score the first half and stay composed, he didn’t force bad shots, he just stayed with it, and when the moments came he hit some big ones and he got it going for us.”
Shirk also scored 20 points and Wessels added 14.
The Falcon girls were slow out of the gate. But they scored 20 points in the second quarter to stretch the advantage, cleaning up some of the early sloppiness. Ava Eddy led with 14 points. Kolbie Wangsness and Lorna Bernard each scored 12.
They’ll return to action Tuesday by hosting Denver.
