The Pella basketball teams host Grinnell as the second round of Little Hawkeye Conference games begins this evening.

Both the Lady Dutch and Little Dutch have won back-to-back non-conference games against PCM and Knoxville after falling to DC-G a week ago.

Pella’s girls are 10-4 overall and finished the first loop through the league at 4-3, while the Tigers are 13-1 and 6-1, having lost their first game of the season Tuesday against Indianola.

The Lady Dutch hung tough with Grinnell for the first half of their first matchup earlier this season, but the Tigers pulled away in the final 16 minutes for a 72-39 blowout victory. Pella coach Jerod Garland hopes things are a little different this time around.

“I remember at halftime of that game going in and thinking that we really didn’t play that bad, they’re really just that good. And then in the second half things got away from us. Hopefully tonight we can play good, hard defense. Hopefully we can get every rebound and handle their pressure a little bit. Chloe’s (Van Vliet) knee is doing a lot better than back then. She’s much healthier and staying on the floor a lot longer. I think that’s going to be an advantage for us that we can keep her out there longer, but it’s going to take a great effort from us.”

Pella’s boys beat Grinnell 62-41 the first time around, and coach Derek Schulte is hoping for continued improvement from his club to snap a four game LHC losing streak.

The Little Dutch are 8-5 overall and 3-4 in the league, while the Tigers are still looking for their first win of the season at 0-12 and 0-7.

Trevor Castle and Mike Buchheit will call the doubleheader tonight live on our KRLS2 stream at www.kniakrls.com. Pregame starts at 6:00 with the opening tip of the girls game at 6:15.

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