The Aplington-Parkersburg boys basketball team erased an early deficit and finished strong in the second half to defeat Kee 69-58 at Saturday’s Upper Iowa Shootout in Fayette, as aired on 99 The Wave.
— AP Boys Basketball (@APBoysHoops) January 19, 2025
Kee was hot early, leading by as many as seven points in the first quarter. But the Falcons bounced back, and a Tyler Wedeking three-pointer gave the team its first lead at 23-20 in the closing seconds of the first quarter. The Hawks pulled to within one point at halftime, and the third quarter remained close. But the Falcons took advantage of takeaways and strong finishes at the rim down the stretch to seal the win. Head Coach Aaron Thomas says they had to overcome some size mismatches.
“We knew that going in, and we knew they didn’t want to get up and down and play fast,” Thomas says. “Their size gave us some problems, just rebounding on that end. We got some shots, maybe their size effected us, we didn’t shoot it as well. I know we didn’t shoot very well from three. We only had two threes at halftime. It was good for us. We built our lead when they went to a triangle and two. They triangled Tyler and Benny and our other guys. We had really good movement, got some good shots against that. It was good to see that. Hopefully it gives our guys some confidence. On a back-to-back, it’s always good if you can get a win. Not our prettiest, but the bottom line is we got done what we needed to.”
Benny Waller led with 26 points, Caleb Campbell added 15 and Wedeking scored 13.
AP (11-1) will return to action Tuesday by hosting Hudson.
Aaron Thomas interview:
