Falcons prevail over South Hamilton

DES MOINES -- A key put-back off a free throw miss in the final seconds by Alec Oberhauser provided just enough for Aplington-Parkersburg to stave off South Hamilton in the Class 2A state quarterfinal on Monday, March 5.

The Falcons won 54-51 as South Hamilton star Marco Balderas missed a game-tying three-pointer as time expired.

A-P plays top-seeded Treynor, a 59-53 winner over a feisty Wapello team in the first 2A game of the day, on Wednesday, at 6:30 p.m. back at Wells Fargo Arena.

"All-in-all I thought our guys stuck to the game-plan and showed enough toughness to get it done at the end," A-P coach Aaron Thomas said.

Both Thomas and Oberhauser said the rebound and put-back were big. Oberhauser finished with a team-high 14 points with three Falcons scoring in double figures.

"Coach Thomas told us we were going to set a screen and Aaron (Price) set a perfect screen on the guy," Oberhauser said. "And came around the screen and I was wide-open (for the) lay-up and just made it."

Marco Balderas put South Hamilton on his 5-foot-9 shoulders, leading all scorers with 24 points, but his final game-tying shot just missed.

"He was able to penetrate really well," Oberhauser said of Balderas. "In the first half, we didn't do a good job and in the second half I think we contained a little more, but we've got to work on that still."

Read more in the March 14th edition of the Parkersburg Eclipse.