5 Takeaways: Aplington-Parkersburg vs. BCLUW
The season kicked off on Monday night with a few regular season games around the state. After waiting close to eight months to see players hit the floor in high schools across Iowa, we finally got our wish. In the…
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Continue ReadingThe season kicked off on Monday night with a few regular season games around the state. After waiting close to eight months to see players hit the floor in high schools across Iowa, we finally got our wish. In the first game of the year, Aplington-Parkersburg raced out to a 12-0 lead and never looked back. They pressured the ball all four quarters and BCLUW struggled to handle the pressure. After the first quarter, BCLUW trailed 25-6 and it was a sign of things to come. Aplington-Parkersburg took the win 71-36 on opening night and the game told us a lot about both teams. I present my five takeaways below.
Aplington-Parkersburg is not rebuilding…they reloaded
Some thought that A-P would be experiencing a down year this year after losing so much talent off of their team last year. Aplington-Parkersburg lost their top four scorers from a year ago but they didn’t miss a beat in their opening win. Sophomore point guard Jayden Mackie was the 11th, yes the 11th, leading scorer on the team last year with 1.3 points a game. All he did in this one was lead all scorers with 16 points while looking like a seasoned veteran. In all, they had seven players score more than five points so it could be another exciting year for Aplington-Parkersburg since it doesn’t look like they are slowing down.
Jayden Mackie and Owen Thomas are going to be catalysts for this team
Mackie and Thomas were both really impressive in the early going of this game. Mackie scored 14 points in the first half before cooling off and scoring just two in the second half. Thomas had seven points in the game, all of which were in the first half. I was very impressed with the start that these two got the team out to. They like to run with the ball and their pressing style of defense really helps them do that. Both Mackie and Thomas were distributing the ball well and now that they are going to be looked at to score more, they’ll learn how to keep it going in the second halves.
BCLUW struggled to convert
BCLUW turned a new stone as they have a first-year head coach leading the program this year. It is a team that is still looking for an identity and that might take some time after their first game. They struggled a little with the pressure of Aplington-Parkersburg and couldn’t really ever hit anything at the rim. They had quite a few good looks, but they missed close to 10 shots inside the paint. It will be interesting to see if they can start to hit their shots a little better as we continue through the season.
Trey Teske will have to lead the team
One guy we know will be able to score the ball this year is senior guard Trey Teske. Teske showed us early what he was able to do as he dropped seven points in the first half. Teske was the only consistent bucket getter for BCLUW it seemed as he finished with 11 points. Teske has nice length on him allowing him to finish well at the rim and he can shoot it fairly well but we didn’t see that tonight as he was 1-of-5 from the line. Teske should be the leading scorer for this team this year and I could imagine him having some gaudy numbers.
How will these teams fare this year?
Both of these teams were thought to be rebuilding and while it looks like BCLUW is, I think we found the answer to whether or not Aplington-Parkersburg is. A-P will likely be fighting for another conference crown and I think that is well within reach with the talent they had on the floor tonight. BCLUW is definitely rebuilding and they might be in for a long year. They’ll look better as the year goes on but I am hard-pressed to find more than seven wins on their schedule.