Pella Christian and PCM both made the trip to LeGrand for the Class 2A boys basketball district semifinals, but both ended their seasons.

The Mustangs fell to West Marshall 61-58, while the Eagles dropped a close one to East Marshall 43-41 in a pair of games heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

PCM and West Marshall had a see-saw first quarter, but a switch to zone for the Trojans and hot three-point shooting allowed them to pull away from the Mustangs to a 12 point lead at the break. They then opened the third quarter on an 8-0 run, but Head Coach Fred Lorensen tells KNIA/KRLS Sports that mounting a comeback against a high-scoring team was just too much to overcome down the stretch.

“That’s what they do, they’re known to do that — they, as a team, shoot 40 percent from the arc and they’ve made a bunch of them all season,” he says. “So you just got to keep hanging in there and doing what you can and they finally missed some shots for us in the second half and it got us a little bit closer, but when you have to come back that far, sometimes you use up a lot of energy and you just don’t have quite enough to get it finished, and that’s what happened to us tonight.”

Andrew Van Ryswyk led PCM with 18 points and 10 rebounds, with Jackson Thomas pouring in 13 and Reed Worth tacking on 10 points.

Pella Christian was also locked into a close showdown with undefeated East Marshall in the nightcap. The Eagles surged to an early 14-4 lead to quiet a rabid crowd, only to see the lead slip to four by the end of the first quarter. Pella Christian was mostly iced from the paint offensively throughout the four periods, and while they started 4-for-4 from beyond the arc, P.C. only hit one of their last nine tries from downtown. Head Coach Larry Hessing believes their inability to find room in the lane was a key factor in the loss.

“East Marshall recognized that our low post game is important to us, and they did a really good job defensively,” Hessing says. “They double and triple-teamed Alex[Huisman] and he got stripped once or twice there in the first half, and they took him out of the game as best as they could.”

The Eagles were led by 11 points from Jake Pringle and nine from Jayden Huisman.

PCM ends the 2018 season at 16-6, while Pella Christian will end in the month of February for the first time since 2014 at 8-15.