The Aplington-Parkersburg basketball teams were dominant in Thursday’s wins at Oelwein, as aired on 99 The Wave. The girls won 83-40 and the boys won 66-34.
The girls put together one of their more dominant performances in recent memory, putting the game out of reach from the start. The point total was the most in a game since the 2018-2019 season, and the 11 made three-pointers were the most in a game since the 2022-2023 season. The Falcons raced out to a 20-8 lead after the first quarter, and scored 25 in both the second and third quarters to put the running clock rule in effect. Junior Kolbie Wangsness.
“Our shots were just falling for us tonight, and I think we had a lot of girls, I want to say half of our threes came from girls off the bench too,” Junior Kolbie Wangsness says. “It was just really good to see some of those girls get some shots up, and everyone worked well together tonight. And when we flow, we’re really hard to beat. And I think we flowed really well tonight and just ran our plays well and executed like we should and did what we talked about in practice. So I think it just all worked out tonight.”
Eight three-pointers were scored by bench players, including a team-high four by Ava Eddy. Wangsness led with 19 points, Peyton Klooster was 9/10 for 18 points, including finishing on eight straight makes and Eddy scored 17. AP is now 2-1.
In the boys game, the Falcons overcame some cold shooting stretches and frequent fouling in the first half, and the Huskies remained within striking distance. In a somewhat similar fashion to Tuesday’s game against Sumner-Fredericksburg, the Falcons created separation in the second half by outscoring their opponents 22-6 in the third quarter. The running clock rule went into effect as the Falcons concluded their first road game in quick fashion.
“We were ragged to start, and we talked to the guys, I think we played like we practiced a little bit yesterday,” Head Coach Aaron Thomas says. “We chucked it around, and then got called pretty tight, and we want to play aggressive defense, so a lot of fouls were where they just couldn’t get any flow. I thought the second half, the guys responded really well after halftime, we came out on a big run and they were engaged with one another. Really proud of our second half effort. and we’ll build on that. It’s a newer group, outside Caleb and Benny, nobody really has, Trevin and Sully played a little bit of varsity basketball last year, but not a whole lot. So proud of this group, just the way they keep coming together. We’ll learn, I hope we learn from our start and learn from our practice yesterday, as we gotta be ready to go again tomorrow against Webster City.”
Caleb Campbell led with 19 points, Tyler Wedeking scored 15 with three three-pointers, Benny Waller scored 12 and Mason Ridder was a perfect 5/5 for 11 points. AP is now 2-0.
The Falcons will return to action Friday at Webster City on 99 The Wave. Pregame coverage will begin at 6:00, followed by the tipoff at 6:15.
Kolbie Wangsness interview:
Aaron Thomas interview:
