The Pella girls were clicking on all cylinders on their way to a 63-27 rout of Chariton last night. The Lady Dutch defense forced the Chargers into 11 first quarter turnovers as they built up a 22-7 lead and never looked back. Coach Jerod Garland said he was happy with their defensive intensity and focus all night, but adds he was most pleased with their offensive performance.

“We tend to be a team that plays so hard defensively that sometimes we let that carry over into offense and we tend to rush possessions,” said Garland. “I was happy that the girls were a little more patient tonight. We tried to take what they gave us, and were able to find some cracks in that 1-3-1 [zone defense] and get the ball inside to Regan [Cooper] quite a bit.”

Regan Cooper scored 10 first quarter points en route to a career-high 25 to lead all scorers while Katie Sunderman, Allie DeMeulenaere and Bailey Vande Weerd each added 6 points. Pella out-rebounded the Chargers 41-28 and forced 31 turnovers for the game as they improved to 7-4 overall for the season.

In the boys game, Chariton took advantage of early Pella turnovers to jump out to a 5-0 lead, but it wouldn’t last long as the Little Dutch erupted on a 25-2 run, to lead 25-7 after one quarter on their way to a 78-59 win. Grant Barrick led all scorers with 19, while Jace Versteeg scored 12 and Grant Gustafson added 11 points to go along with 9 rebounds.

The win improves Pella to 6-4 overall for the season. Both teams will return to Little Hawkeye Conference action Friday night when they play host to Norwalk.

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