Despite a non-conference snag for the Pella High girls on Saturday at PCM, the Lady Dutch will try to keep their strong play in the Little Hawkeye Conference rolling tonight in Newton. Pella High girls’ head coach Jerod Garland says his team has some clear areas of emphasis entering tonight.

“We need to keep working on things. One of our weaknesses – and all season this has been the case – is handling the ball, handling pressure, and making good strong passes,” said Garland. “We know we need to keep working on that, and a game like this [against Newton] will help us.”

The Lady Dutch are 8-5 overall and 5-2 in league play, and will look for the second win of the season against the Cardinals; whom they beat 61-28 on December 20th in Pella.

On the boys’ side, the Little Dutch are also holding on to second place in the conference race, as they stand at 6-1 in the league after defeating Norwalk on Friday. Head coach Mark Core says tonight begins a stretch of busy weeks for his team.

“The next three weeks all have three games. We’ve got a Tuesday/Friday/Saturday combination each of the next three weeks, so we’re going to play a lot of ball,” said Core. “I’ve mentioned a couple of times that we’re at the mid-point [of the season], and that’s true in terms of games, but we’re way past the mid-point in terms of where we are on the calendar and the amount of practices we have left. Honestly, it’s a good thing that our guys are responding to what we’ve been emphasizing in practice, because we’re going to be busy.”

The Pella boys defeated Newton 56-25 in their first meeting this season. You can hear both Pella High basketball games streamed live at kniakrls.com tonight – starting at 6:00 p.m. – with Eric Gotschall and Randy Sikkema in Newton for the call.