For the second straight year, the Aplington-Parkersburg and Dike-New Hartford girls basketball teams will meet in postseason play. This year, it’ll take place a round earlier in Wednesday’s regional final in Cedar Falls with a state tournament appearance on the line.
The Falcons are 19-4 and advanced to the regional final with home wins over South Winneshiek and Jesup. In the Jesup game, the Falcons used a strong offensive second half after a slow start, led by a career-high 20 points by Quinnlyn Schultz.
In the previous two games against the Wolverines, the Falcons were held to their two lowest scoring games of the season in 64-24 and 64-26 losses. Head Coach Brady Driscol says he’s tried to instill belief in his team that they can pull off the upset.
“A lot of teams probably go in and see Dike and kind of fold a little bit before they even have thrown the tip up in the air,” Driscol says. “We’ve been telling them that the first step of this whole thing, if we’re going to pull off this upset, is you’ve got to believe it can happen. That’s before we even step on the court while we practice here, you got to believe it can happen, or else, what’s it all for? So getting that in the mindset that it’s possible. We’ve got to try some things out that maybe they haven’t seen before. They’ve seen a lot of things. They’re not a normal team, so you can’t be normal against them. Whether that’s speeding them up with pressing or sagging way, way off and trying to take a chance with rebounds. We got a lot that we can try and we’ve tried it throughout the course of the year too, but now it’s all out there. Now there’s no holding anything back with this one.”
At 22-2, the #1 (2A) Wolverines advanced with wins over NICL foes Waterloo Columbus and Sumner-Fredericksburg. In the win over the Cougars, the Wolverines pulled away with a strong fourth quarter after it was within striking distance most of the way. Head Coach Bruce Dall says his team has had the needed energy since the end of the regular season.
“Since the second half of the South Hardin game, a few weeks back, we have really played with a lot of energy,” Dall says. “I think we kind of came off that game against North Polk and just were a little bit stagnant. And then we kind of had to talk about energy and bringing energy. And so I think the difference has been that the girls have really gotten themselves up and ready to go for each and every game and every possession. So you know, a senior-led team that’s going to lead like they have with their athletic ability, stuff like that’s going to happen.”
Star players Payton Petersen, Jadyn Petersen and Maryn Bixby will look to lead the team to its seventh straight state tournament appearance.
The game will air on 104.9 KLMJ with pregame coverage beginning at 6:40 p.m., followed by the tipoff at 7:00.
