The Pella Christian boys basketball team exploded out of the gates and never looked back, as they buried Knoxville 60-35 last night in Pella.  The Eagles started the game on a 15-0 run, as the Panthers didn’t get their first score until the 3:25 mark in the first quarter.  Pella Christian was up 21-5 at the end of the opening period and outscored Knoxville 19-6 in the third quarter to put the game away before the final period had even started.  

Following a disappointing loss last week to PCM, Eagles’ Head Coach Larry Hessing said he felt the team was successful in accomplishing its goals for the game.

“We had some extended defenses that we wanted to work on a little bit, and I thought we got that done.  We changed things up a little bit at the start of the second half, and I thought our guys did a super job in that.  I thought we played really good defense in the half court as well,” said Hessing.  

“Things were a little ragged on the offensive end.  Knoxville did a nice job of sagging in the post and trying to take some of that away from us.  We got a little impatient, but we got a lot done tonight on the positive side.”

Knoxville Coach Clint Driftmier knew Pella Christian would outsize his team…however he says that means the guys must work that much harder.

Kyle Nikkel filled out the stat-sheet, fueled by a dominant first half, as he finished the night with 16 points and 13 rebounds to lead all players in both categories.  Zach Veenstra came off the bench to put up ten points, while three other Eagles added eight points apiece.  Jamie VanderVeer led Knoxville with ten points. The Pella Christian boys are now 4-1 overall and 1-0 in league play going into Friday’s game at Grinnell. Knoxville takes a two-and-three mark and oh-and-two conference ledger back home to play South Tama on Friday.