The undefeated Pella Christian Eagles’ basketball teams will be hosting two tough teams for PCM later tonight in doubleheader action on the court. The 3 – 0 Eagles girls’ team is up against a Mustangs’ team that likes to run and run often. Pella Christian head girls’ coach, Kevin Van Maanen, said that their plan of attack against PCM is almost the same as what they implemented against Oskaloosa on Tuesday.
“PCM, we’ll have to get back for sure against them,” Van Maanen said. “They’ll push the ball hard at us. If we can do that and defend, I think we’ll be fine. At the same time, I think we have a size advantage with Cori [Uitermarkt] inside, so hopefully we’re patient enough and work around the perimeter and get the ball inside to her and get some easy points that way.”
The PCM girls are 2 – 2 on the year, and are coming off a 65 – 44 trouncing of South Hamilton this past Tuesday, with sophomore starter Courtney VanHouweling leading the way with a double-double, scoring 17 points and grabbing 14 rebounds. Looking at the boys’ matchup, each team is undefeated so far this year, and sparks should fly when the game finally tips off. Eagles’ head boys coach, Larry Hessing, said that even with an inexperienced team that the Mustangs have, you can never take PCM lightly.
“PCM graduated a lot of seniors last year who were outstanding athletes in many sports over there at PCM over the last three or four years,” Hessing said. “This year, they’ve got kind of a new group. I’ve been through that before. When you get a group of new guys that have kind of played in the shadows of the people that are in the class in front of them, they’re anxious to get their chance to prove themselves. They’re never going to have a bad team, they’re always well-coached, and they’re off to a fine start as well again this year, which is what you would expect of them, so it’s going to be a battle.”
The PCM boys are 4 – 0 while Pella Christian enters play at 3 – 0. We will have two broadcasts of tonight’s doubleheader action. Cory Houser and Wynne Veenstra will call the game on the Pella Christian side of things on 92.1 KRLS, and streamed live at kniakrls.com, while Justin Webster will be providing the play-by-play for PCM, also streamed live on our website. Each broadcast will start with the pregame show at 6:00 p.m., and the tipoff of the girls’ game is at 6:15 p.m.