The AGWSR basketball teams will host Grundy Center in the NICL-West finale for all four teams Tuesday.
The AGWSR girls (12-7, 4-3 NICL-W) have won four of their last five games, but will face one of their biggest tests of the season. After falling 36-28 to the Spartans in January, Head Coach David Koop says this game is an opportunity for revenge.
“Tuesday night’s a big night for sure,” Koop says. “We have a chance to play spoiler. If Grundy Center wins, they share the conference title with GR, and if they don’t, then they’re number two. And that’s always fun to do, I guess you would say, when you know where you stand, when you get to play spoiler for somebody else. And it’s a game I feel like the girls know, we kind of owe them one in Ackley. The one down there we thought we should have won, and we didn’t play our best, and we knew we could have played better, and that’s good that the girls have that on the back of their mind, that we need to give them a better game than we did down there. And I think, just winding down, working on the little things have been hurting us in these close games with Belmond-Klemme and going back to Jesup and Grundy Center and Hudson and GR. It’s just those little things when you play high quality teams that you can’t afford to do, like turning the ball over in the half court.”
Grundy Center (12-6, 6-1 NICL-W) has won four straight, with the last three games having been decided by 40 or more points. With an average points against of 35.4, Head Coach Matt Lindeman says the defense has carried the team.
“Defensively, we’ve been the most consistent night in and night out, and that’s what we kind of hang our hat on,” Lindeman says. “And the girls have just done a really great job of playing team basketball. And then our aggressive nature and quickness kind of takes over as well. So that’s kind of been our mainstay, and really have done a nice job night in and night out doing that. Whether or not a game is going the way we want it to, we’re playing really well and executing really well. That’s what gives us a chance each and every night.”
The #5 (2A) Spartan boys (16-0, 7-0 NICL-W) have clinched the division title, and will look to close division play undefeated and remain undefeated on the season. AGWSR (2-16, 0-7 NICL-W) will look to compete closer than in the 72-37 Spartan win when the teams met in January.
The doubleheader will start at 6:15 p.m.
