D-NH girls overwhelm A-P, Dall honored for 500th win

DIKE – Aplington-Parkersburg girls basketball didn’t back down from their two-time state champion rivals from Dike-New Hartford on Friday.

But the top-ranked Wolverines were experienced enough to counter A-P’s quick, athletic attack and when shots didn’t fall for the Falcons early D-NH was there to make the visitors pay in a 61-28 Dike-New Hartford victory on Friday.

The Wolverines improved to 10-0; 14th-ranked A-P slipped to 7-2.

“In years past, before the shot clock, we tried to slow it down against these guys,” A-P head coach Brady Driscol said. “This year we flipped our mentality, use our quickness and speed to our advantage, but in the end they’re such a good, well-rounded team, well-coached. And we can match their quickness, if not have a little bit on them, but they take a lot in size and physicality.”

D-NH’s 5-foot-9 junior Maryn Bixby slashed the Falcons with a game-high 17 points, including 10 in the second quarter, and Jadyn Petersen and Ellary Knock each finished with double-doubles - 13 points and 12 rebounds for Jadyn, 11 and 10 for Ellie.

“We had to find our rhythm and work as a team to get the ball in and out,” Bixby said. “Keep them on their toes and find open shooters. … We’d get it in to Payton [Petersen] and they’d collapse on them and find us an open shooter to take it.”

D-NH started off with a 16-7 lead after the first quarter, expanding it to 39-12 at halftime on a night where A-P shot just 25 percent from the floor on 44 attempts with 24 turnovers. Peyton Klooster steered the Falcons with nine points.

“It’s a big gym, a big rivalry, and you can really over ramp yourself up,” Driscol said. “It’s tough to come back down from that. We wanted to get shots up though and make sure they didn’t get those live ball turnovers, or get out and around, but they got our rebounds and used that in transition where we weren’t able to get back as much. That’s something we’ve got to take into account in the future not just against these guys but other games in the future.”

After the game, D-NH head coach Bruce Dall was recognized in the home gym for his 500th win, achieved before the end of 2022 against Grundy Center.

“When I got out of high school and went out into the real world, I missed being part of a team,” Dall said. “I missed winning these battles with my people … I’m just happy to be a part of this team and go along for the rides.”

The contributions of his family to those 500 career wins - wife, Billie and son, Kinnick - are invaluable, too. He’s never missed a game, win or lose, as a coach - one that stands out was a road game at Wapsie Valley on a cold night where Bruce was very sick.

“I told my wife, ‘I’m not going to make it,’ and she just said ‘That just seems weird to me. You’ve never missed one,’ and I pulled myself up,” Bruce said. “And with Kinnick, there was just always something missing with us between family and basketball and he really crossed the t’s and dotted the i’s for us. He made everything complete.”