Pella’s girls jumped out to a 15-0 lead last night against winless Oskaloosa and cruised to a 70-32 win in the first game of a doubleheader heard live on 92.1 KRLS. Then in a thrilling nightcap, the Little Dutch boys dropped a 65-56 decision.
Emily Holterhaus had a near triple-double for the Lady Dutch in the opener, scoring 29 points, grabbing 14 rebounds and collecting seven steals in only three quarters of action.
Erica Bossard chipped in 11 points as Pella improves to 13-7 overall and 7-6 in Little Hawkeye Conference play.
The boys game was a tight back-and-forth affair, with each team building leads as large as seven points through the first three quarters, only to see the other team rally for the lead.
Pella slowly compiled a 33-26 advantage late in the second quarter, but the Indians scored the final 10 points of the first half to lead 36-33 at intermission. A quick start to the third quarter found the Indians up seven, 41-34, but the Little Dutch ripped off eight in a row to reclaim the lead.
The key stretch of the game came with three minutes to play and Pella down two, 54-52. Logan Shetterly’s driving layup attempt was just off the mark, and Oskaloosa scored five points in 15 seconds on a three-pointer by Spencer Tucker and a layup by Jared Kruse. Pella never got closer than seven the rest of the way.
Coach Derek Schulte is proud of the way that his guys competed, and he says that they showed tremendous strides from a 27-point loss to the Indians nearly a month ago.
“What we left the locker room saying is that there’s not one guy in there satisfied with playing close to Osky. And that’s a top-notch team. But we came here to win, and we didn’t get that done, and we hope we get one more shot at them (in the playoffs).”
Ryan Gustafson (15), Nick DeJong (14) and Shetterly (12) all scored in double figures for Pella, while Kruse’s 21 led a trio of double-digit scorers for Osky. The Little Dutch are now 10-9 overall and 5-8 in the LHC.
Both the Pella girls and boys will close out conference play on Friday at home against Dallas Center-Grimes.