They’ve had eight days to prepare, and tonight, Pella High and Cedar Rapids Xavier square off in the first round of the Class 3A state boys’ basketball tournament in Des Moines. Both schools had to make their way through a difficult conference, with multiple state qualifiers in each. The Saints feature four players that average double figures in scoring, but have had their troubles rebounding the ball, grabbing nearly 25 per game, while the Dutch grab about 32. Coach Jim Dingeman feels it’ll be the opposition that will have to make the adjustments tonight.
“We just need to keep playing our game; tempo and pressure,” Dingeman says. “We don’t need to do anything different. They’re going to have to do something different to beat us, and we don’t need to do anything different to beat them.”
Defensively, Coach Roger DeWaard echoes Coach Dingeman’s opinion.
“I don’t think we’re going to change anything,” DeWaard says. “We got kids that want to play hard. The key to our defense is energy. I’ve kind of dubbed myself the ‘energy coach.’ So I just try to keep them going, and as long as we do that, we’re going to play well.”
The call of tonight’s quarterfinal game inside of Wells Fargo Arena can be heard live on 92.1 KRLS and streamed live at KNIAKRLS.com, with Cory Houser and Randy Sikkema on the play-by-play. Our pre-game coverage is set to begin at 7:45 p.m. with tip-off scheduled for 8:15.