The girls basketball season will resume its gradual launch Monday when Aplington-Parkersburg hosts Hampton-Dumont-CAL on 99 The Wave. It’ll be the fourth straight season opener between the programs, with the Falcons having won the previous three.
The Falcons will have the advantage of three returning starters and five other regular rotation players from last year’s team that went 19-5. They’ll look to make up for the loss of last year’s top scorer and rebounder Kendall Riherd, but will have the luxury of returning most of last year’s production. Head Coach Brady Driscol on preparing for the opener.
“I think they’ll be in sync and they’ll know what they need to do to have a successful season for them,” Driscol says. “We’ll have to just make sure that we’re closing out hard to those guards and rebounding and take care of the ball. Because I think last year when we played there, I think we were right around 25 turnovers or so. That’s some of the best backcourt play that we’ll see this year, is with those guys. They’re active, they play hard for the whole game, have active hands. So we need to make sure that we take care of the ball and locate where they’re at at all times.”
Quinnlyn Schultz is the returning leading scorer after averaging 10.1 points per game last year.
Coming off an 11-11 season, the Bulldogs enter with the returning experience of all five starting positions. Head Coach Miranda Stafford says getting reconditioned to gameplay will be a key.
“They’re super aggressive, so we have to take care of the basketball,” Stafford says. “The last two years we’ve played them, they’ve come in with different game plans. So we’ve just got to be ready to play basketball. We’ve got to be prepared, zone, man, press. Last year, they pressed us off of makes and misses. So just being prepared to play 32 minutes. They like to get up and down. They like to pressure a lot, cause turnovers and play fast. So we’re going to have to be ready to take care of the basketball and hopefully take advantage of some of their aggressiveness, because they’re going to take some chances. So we’re going to have to be able to capitalize on some of those mistakes.”
Jordan Valley scored 12.2 points per game to lead the team last year.
Pregame coverage will begin at 7:20 p.m., followed by the tipoff at 7:30.
Brady Driscol interview:
Miranda Stafford interview:
