Pella Christian’s girls hung tough with Class 4A #3 Grinnell, but the Tigers pulled away late for a 58-44 win. Meanwhile, the Eagle boys led from start to finish in a 52-37 victory.

The girls contest was back and forth for the first three quarters, with Pella Christian holding several leads and never falling behind by more than seven against an undefeated Grinnell team that had won all of its previous nine games by 17 or more points.

But the Eagles wore down in the fourth quarter as Grinnell outscored P.C. 15-6 in the frame to prevail. Morgan Fopma led Pella Christian with 15 points and 10 rebounds, and Kaley Wilson scored 13.

In the boys game, Pella Christian jumped out to a 14 point first quarter lead, and while the Tigers made a couple of runs, the game never got closer than six the rest of the way.

Eagles coach Larry Hessing admitted that it wasn’t the prettiest game, but said it was an all-around solid performance out of his young club.

“I thought we played really good defense for the most part, which accounted for Grinnell’s low scoring. On the other end, Grinnell did a really good job with their zone defense, they really packed it in and gave us some difficulty getting the ball inside. Fortunately, we had a couple of guys who stepped up to the plate and shot the ball well from the outside.”

Dan Jungling and Jack Vermeer combined to make seven three-pointers in the game, including four in the first quarter as the Eagles built their big lead.

Jungling finished with a game high 13 points, Alex Huisman added 10 points and 14 rebounds, Jayden Huisman scored 10 and Vermeer chipped in nine.

The Eagles are now 3-6 overall and 1-4 in the Little Hawkeye Conference. Pella Christian’s girls fall to 7-4 overall and 2-3 in the LHC.

Both teams will host Dallas Center-Grimes on Tuesday night.

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