After a very tough season opener with top-ranked Ballard, the Pella girls basketball team has a few days off to recharge and continue to jell as a unit. Lady Dutch Head Coach Jerod Garland says after giving up 52 points to Ballard, a primary focus will be team defense.

“I just think we want to keep things competitive in practice.  Just a credit to the girls, we’ve had some pretty highly competitive practices, and we want to keep that going,” said Garland.  “We really want to keep teams in the 30s, and so to see that ‘52’ – even though it’s against a great team like Ballard – we’re not very happy with that 52 [points], so we’ll keep shoring up that defense.”

The Lady Dutch are 0-1 this season, with a Saturday contest at Mount Pleasant up next on the schedule.