The girls basketball Class 2A regional quarterfinals will happen Tuesday night, which includes Aplington-Parkersburg hosting North Butler in Region 8 on 99 The Wave.
Coming off a 14-7 regular season, the Falcons will look to carry the momentum of winning two of their final three games.
“A team that we haven’t seen before, or that I haven’t seen before since I’ve been here,” Head Coach Brady Driscol says. “But usually I feel like when we talk North Butler, you talk big, strong, physical kids. They might kind of make the game slower, choppy, not as much pace, but we’ll watch some film on them here and see what they bring to the table. Everybody’s record goes out the window, and you’ve just got to take it one game at a time, not overlook anybody. Even last week with Wapsie and Union at the end of the week, teams that we haven’t had too much of a problem with in the past, they both gave great battles for definitely the first half, for both of those, and Wapsie, even into the fourth quarter. So records go out the window at this point.”
Kolbie Wangsness led the team with 12.4 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in the regular season. The program has advanced to three straight regional finals and would be one game away from the fourth straight with a win.
North Butler went 3-17 in the regular season and will enter the playoffs on a six-game losing streak. Head Coach Jordan Nolz anticipates having to face pressure defense.
“AP is going to get right up on us, full-court press the entire game,” Nolz says. “They’ve got high pressure, lengthy, they’re a tall, lengthy team with good athleticism. And we’ve struggled with pressure all year. That’s kind of been the story for us for the past how many years. And so that’s a big area we’re going to have to really focus in and see how we can help it out, provide them pressured situations, figure out how we can eliminate the turnovers in the full court press, and then also get established into our offense because that’s where we struggle too, is getting established in our offense. Our defense is great in half court setting, but AP is going to have the speed over us if we commit turnovers in the back court, we’re going to struggle to get back on defense so we’ve really got to focus on dealing with pressure.”
Zoey Thompson leads with 9.9 points per game for a team that has been held to fewer than 30 points per game throughout the regular season.
Coverage will start at 6:40 p.m., followed by the tipoff at 7:00. The winner will advance to Friday’s regional semifinal against either #7 (2A) Denver or South Winneshiek.
