The Pella High girls and boys basketball teams swept Pella Christian last night in their first doubleheader of the season as heard live on 92.1 KRLS, with the Lady Dutch winning 43-30 and the Little Dutch prevailing 58-54.
In the girls’ game, Pella High built a small first quarter lead, and forced a whopping 34 turnovers to keep the Eagles at arm’s length. Pella Christian was without injured point guard Mary Kate Bandstra, and coach Kevin Van Maanen says that made a big difference.
“She’s been doing a great job for us running the point, and when you lose your point guard, she does so many things for you. She breaks the press, she gets you into your offense. I thought (Emma) Huisman tried to do her best even though it’s not her favorite position. And Avery (Baugh) came off the bench and I thought she was tentative tonight, but she’s young. We just didn’t handle it very well tonight as a basketball team.”
Pella coach Jerod Garland was extremely pleased with his team’s all-around effort, as the Lady Dutch played almost half of the game without Emily Holterhaus, who was in foul trouble.
“It was definitely a fun win, with a lot of enthusiasm. That was the biggest thing that we were looking for was energy and enthusiasm tonight, and I thought everybody from people on the bench to the girls on the floor had that, and that was nice to see.”
Eight different Pella players scored, but none were in double figures. Chloe Van Vliet’s nine points topped the charts, and Holterhaus grabbed six rebounds in limited action.
It was the opposite story for Pella Christian, as only four players scored, but two were in double digits. Morgan Fopma had an 11-point 11-rebound double-double, and Isabella Baugh added 10 points and eight boards.
The Lady Dutch improve to 3-2 overall, while the Eagles drop to 4-2. Both teams are 1-1 in the Little Hawkeye Conference.
In the boys’ game, Pella exploded for seven first half three pointers to build a 16-point halftime advantage. While the Eagles made a run to get within one on two different occasions, they weren’t able to complete the comeback.
Little Dutch coach Derek Schulte was especially pleased with his team’s performance in the first 16-minutes.
“We played unselfishly, we made the extra pass and we hit shots. We really got into a flow on the offensive end in that first half. We also did a great job of taking away their three-point shooters. That’s often an overlooked piece, but they have some guys that can light it up, and we didn’t let them get going early.”
Pella Christian got going in the second half, hitting five third-quarter three pointers as they made their charge. Coach Larry Hessing says that his team finally learned how to play in those final 16 minutes, and while it doesn’t show on the scoreboard, it was a big step in the right direction.
“We need to measure growth yet. And we need to look at the video, understand our mistakes, improve, play and see how we do the next time. I think we learned a lot in terms of how we played tonight. We want to keep growing, and you have to kind of ignore that scoreboard measure of success right now. I think we learned a lot that second half, we’ll see if we can carry it forward Monday.”
Jayden Huisman’s 17 points and Jake Pringle’s 16 paced P.C., while Pella got 17 points from Ryan Gustafson, a monster 14-point 15-rebound double-double from Nick DeJong, and 13 points from Logan Shetterly.
Pella improves to 4-0 and 2-0 in the LHC, while the Eagles are 0-4 and 0-2.
Up next for Pella Christian is a doubleheader at Knoxville on Monday night, while both the Little Dutch and Lady Dutch travel to Fairfield on Tuesday night. All of those games can be heard live on 92.1 KRLS.