Hard-fought Wins by Tri-Center Boys, AHSTW Girls in DH Split

AHSTW's Ava Paulsen (1-12-26)

Tri-Center's AJ Harder (1-12-26)

Hard-fought Wins by Tri-Center Boys, AHSTW Girls in DH Split –

(1-12-26) – The battle of rivals had a family feel Monday in Neola

AJ Harder posted 27 pts the Trojans clawed their way to a 63-54 win over the Vikings. Harder said this contest was a war.

“Overall, it was a super physical game. I felt like both teams were just, they wanted it, we wanted it super bad. And overall, I think we were just trying to play, we were playing way too hard. I think we wanted to win too bad. I think we just got to let things come and good things will happen.”

AHSTW kept the game close until the 4th qtr when a 10-3 run by Tri-Center would be the difference. Until that point, it was close contest, with the Vikings taking the lead several times over the Trojans in a back-and-forth affair. Every time the Trojans would start to pull away, the Vikings battled back, cutting their deficit to 1 pt to start the final quarter.

The Vikings were led by Collin Harder who had 13 pts in loss. AJ Harder is cousins with Collin Harder and his brother, Evan Harder, who contributed 11 pts. AJ Harder, who was honored before the game for reaching 1000 pts in his career, liked battling his cousins and having several relatives in the stands for the contest.

“It's super fun to play with them. They're great guys and so fun to play with them.”

It reminds AJ of the battles they’ve had at family gatherings.

“Like (at our) grandma and grandpa's, we play in our grandma's basement. We play like some Oklahoma drills, some football drills and then play some basketball. I have a younger brother and they have a younger brother as well and it sure gets intense, just like this game tonight.”
Tyler Baatz added 11 pts for Tri-Center, who improved to 10-0 on the season.

In the girls contest, Ava Paulsen came off the bench and poured in 13 pts as AHSTW defeated Tri-Center 46 to 27.

Paulsen hopes the win over a WIC rival will help continue the positive momentum her team’s created.

“I feel like it's a big win for us. Hopefully we can just continue the winning streak and just working hard.”

The Lady Vikes dominated the boards and used pressure to force 21 turnovers on the game to push out to a 13-pt lead at the half. Paulsen understands the importance of getting rebounds to keep the offense going and their opponents off the scoreboard.

“It's really important to us. I think we have a lot of bigs out there, which is good. So that just being able to post up down there and just getting each other the shot.”

AHSTW has now won 4 of their past 5 games. Paulsen sees her team coming together and making them a better team.

“This is an amazing group of girls. Like, we're so supportive of each other. We work really hard and we uplift each other even during like losses. So, I think we've definitely gotten a lot stronger.”

The Trojans got 12 pts from Macie Schneckloth.

View past scores by visiting the Iowa High School Athletic Association's website, Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union website,
or Iowa Quik Stats