The Aplington-Parkersburg basketball teams both used stifling defense to earn road wins over Webster City Friday in non-conference action, as aired on 99 The Wave. The girls won 67-42 and the boys won 59-37.
In similar fashion to Thursday’s win over Oelwein, the girls started hot with 23 points in the first quarter, building a lead that quickly became insurmountable. The Falcons defended passing lanes to create numerous takeaways, cruising to their third win of the week. Another balanced scoring output was led by Quinnlyn Schultz with a season-high 19 points, her first time leading in scoring this season.
“She’s one to look to pass first too,” Head Coach Brady Driscol says. “As of this morning, I think she led 2A in assists, does a good job of finding her teammates and sometimes doesn’t look for herself. But tonight, when you get to steal out front and you’re the first one running the break, then she’s definitely capable of going and taking it in for two. And she found her shot a little bit more tonight too. I think probably two or three made threes for her as well. So yeah, it’s good to see her get going. And we talked in the locker room afterwards about last night’s game. You had Kolbie with 19, Peyton 18, Ava 17, and then tonight you come back with Q at 19 and Ava at 17. That’s five different people right there all with 17 or more. It makes a tough scout because we don’t even know on a nightly basis on who’s going to lead us in scoring or who’s going to be up there. So it’s hard for defenses to figure out as well.”
Eva Walker scored a career-high 17 and Ava Eddy added 13. AP is now 3-1.
In the boys game, the defense allowed the Falcons to pull away despite a slower than ideal flow. In the second quarter, Webster City was held to just six points as the Falcons built a 34-15 halftime lead. In the second half, the lead hovered around 20 points, and the Falcon bench emptied to finish it out. Head Coach Aaron Thomas says there are key takeaways from playing a physical Webster City team.
“When you hold teams and don’t let them score, that’s pretty good,” Thomas says. “It was their first game. But I thought defensively we did some very good things. Offensively, not as crisp, which you could maybe expect on the back-to-back. It was good for us to play Webster City, because they were extremely athletic and physical. And we weren’t great against that in our man offense, so it gives us some things to really work on in practice Monday. But that said, we played a lot of different guys with the back-to-back, had some good things. Bernard gave us a really good lift in the second quarter. Gavin came in and got us some buckets that we needed. We didn’t have as high scoring tonight, but if you keep guarding and can get it done that way, you’re going to be in pretty good shape.”
Benny Waller led with 14 points and Caleb Campbell scored 13, moving the Falcons to 3-0.
AP will begin the NICL-Central slate Tuesday at Columbus Catholic on 99 The Wave.
Brady Driscol interview:
Aaron Thomas interview:
