Local Sports

AP soars to substate win in double overtime

The #6 (2A) Aplington-Parkersburg boys basketball team needed two overtime periods, but ultimately overpowered Cascade 75-68 in Saturday’s 2A Substate 4 Final in the McLeod Center, as aired on 99 The Wave.

Cascade gained the early advantage, controlling the tempo of the game for most of the first half. In a defensive slugfest, the Cougars led 22-20 at halftime. But the Falcons bounced back. After trailing for most of the game, AP found its rhythm by scoring inside. Charlie Wessels poured in 25 points, and Tyler Wedeking connected on three three-pointers to go in front near the end of regulation. With seven seconds left in regulation, Cascade drilled a three-pointer to send the game to overtime. Cold free throw shooting by the Falcons in the first overtime gave the Cougars another opportunity for a tying three-pointer late in the period. In the second overtime, AP continued to score inside and secured its first state tournament appearance since 2021. Wessels says the team locked in after halftime.

“This is a bigger court, it’s like 10 feet longer, which is a huge advantage to us, we knew that coming in,” Wessels says. “We tried to play our tempo, but we ended up like playing towards Cascade’s tempo in the first half and they were able to hang with us. So in the second half we were able to push the ball more, they got more tired, we have a lot more depth and then they had guys foul out. We pushed the ball more, moved the ball quicker on offense and got spread out, so I could post one on one in the lane, get them deep and then just go to work.”

“I’m so proud of our kids and their resiliency,” Head Coach Aaron Thomas says. “It would have been easy to fold. It was similar to the Crestwood game. We weren’t great from the free throw line, but man, we got stops, we got rebounds, we made tough plays. And credit to Cascade, they hit some threes to get them to the first overtime and then the second overtime. But like I said, I could not be more proud of our kids, and what a great high school basketball game.”