The Aplington-Parkersburg and Dike-New Hartford basketball teams will meet for the second time this season in an NICL-Central doubleheader hosted by the Wolverines Friday. It’ll air on 99 The Wave.
The Falcon girls (10-4, 3-3 NICL-C) will look to bounce back from Tuesday’s 59-53 home loss to Hudson, where they made just two three-pointers and lost the turnover margin by six. Head Coach Brady Driscol on the keys to bouncing back.
“Valuing in the basketball on our possessions, trying to be really efficient with our stuff, and then also free throws, I think our free throw percentage, there’s room for growth there,” Driscol says. “We don’t get there that much, but when we do, we need to make sure we’re capitalizing on some free points, especially, you look at the Denver game and a two point loss. You know you’re gonna have close games, you need all the points you can get, whether it’s free throws, not missing, you know easy little layups or not giving 15, 20 offensive rebounds to opponents. All those things in these close games are going to be a big thing.”
Dike-New Hartford (5-9, 2-4 NICL-C) snapped a two-game losing streak with Tuesday’s 56-30 win at Columbus Catholic, where they used a 21-point third quarter to create separation. Head Coach Matt Dove says the team is developing and working through some growing pains.
“We’ve just been, with the time that we do have, we’ve just really been trying to address where those inconsistencies are at,” Dove says. “One thing was rebounding that we worked on a lot on Monday, and then we come out on Tuesday and had our best rebounding night of the year. So I think the kids, their heads are all in the right spot and they’re listening to what we’re trying to do in practice, and they’re doing the best they can to apply it to the games. We’re just maybe not doing enough of it at this point. But I’m confident with how well our assistant coaches have been in practice and just how well the kids have been working. I’m confident we’ll keep moving in the right direction, but it’s just going to take time. It’s going to take just discipline and consistency, and just being intentional about the things that we want to improve on.”
The Falcons won 62-28 when the teams met in December.
The Falcon boys (12-1, 6-0 NICL-C) will look to continue their five-game win streak. They’re coming off Tuesday’s 62-43 home win over Hudson, where the defense came up big in the fourth quarter by holding the opponent to seven points.
The Wolverine boys (7-7, 3-3 NICL-C) are coming off a 57-27 win at Columbus Catholic Tuesday. The team shot 54 percent, and a stifling defense held the Sailors to single digits in each quarter.
AP won 62-56 in the first meeting in December.
Coverage will start at 6:00 p.m., followed by the tipoff at 6:15.
