Half of the loaded Little Hawkeye Conference is ranked in the first Associated Press boys basketball rankings of the season, released earlier this week.

Undefeated Norwalk and Oskaloosa lead the way, ranked second and fifth, respectively.

Pella, which was unbeaten at the time of the poll, ranks sixth, while Dallas Center-Grimes is tenth.

The Little Dutch dropped their first game of the season Tuesday night at Fairfield, which is the first loss for new coach Derek Schulte. While disappointed to come up short in a close game, Schulte still has confidence in his squad.

“I really like our team. We’re maybe going to have a few bumps in the road along the way as we establish a new program with some guys who haven’t played as much, but this is a group I’m confident in how they’re going to respond.”

Pella is 4-1 on the season, and has three games left in 2017. They’ll travel to Indianola tomorrow night, then to Norwalk to take on the second-ranked Warriors next Tuesday before wrapping up the pre-Christmas schedule a week from tonight at A-D-M.