The Aplington-Parkersburg basketball teams each won at Dike-New Hartford Friday in games that aired on 99 The Wave and RadioOnTheGo’s YouTube channel. The girls won 53-47 and the #9 (2A) boys won 85-64.
AP had one of its better first halves of the season in the girls game, leading 32-9 at the break. They extended the lead to as many as 26 points, but DNH cut it down to as little as 13 in the final stanza. AP Coach Brady Driscol says it was a much-needed win.
“It was good to get back on the winning side of things,” Driscol says. “Last time we played these guys, we got down early right away and had to fight our way back. And so kind of flipping that this time was good to see. The girls executed pretty well and shot pretty well in the first half, and did enough to hold on in the second.”
Lorna Bernard led the Falcons with 16 points and Mallory Petersen led the Wolverines with 16.
The Falcon boys came out strong with a legacy performance by Benny Waller, tying a career-high with 39 points. After the initial surge, they led by double digits nearly the entire way and scored a season-high in points on 58 percent shooting.
“I thought for the first half, we guarded pretty well,” Head Coach Aaron Thomas says. “We had a couple of lapses. Obviously, Benny got it going. Our guys did a good job of letting him go when he got hot and not worrying about trying to get their own. I thought Tyler Wedeking had a couple of really nice drives and passes. He scores a lot too, but they stayed patient. Without a doubt, Sully Janssen was really good tonight. Three big threes for him, which was great to see. All in all, it was good. We had one bad stretch where we stopped guarding in the second half. Benny was really, really hot tonight. So excellent performance by him.”
Cole Brouwer added 10 points. Corbin McCarter led DNH with 21 points.
In their next action on Tuesday, AP will host Oelwein and DNH will be at Sumner-Fredericksburg.
