The Pella High girls basketball team dropped its first Little Hawkeye Conference game of the season, 58-44 to Grinnell, while the Little Dutch boys took first place in the league with their 59-45 victory over the Tigers in a doubleheader heard live on www.kniakrls.com.

Grinnell’s Kyra Hungerford scored 12 first quarter points as the Tigers built a double digit lead. Pella chipped away to make it a five-point game at intermission, but Grinnell outscored the Lady Dutch 18-6 in the decisive third quarter to put the game away.

Katie Vander Molen led Pella with 14 points, and Kiara Bradley chipped in 9 points and 7 rebounds in her first game in two weeks.

The Lady Dutch drop to 12-2 and 6-1 in the LHC.

In the boys game, it was Pella that burst out to the big early lead, grabbing a 20-8 advantage after one quarter. The Tigers clawed back within 8 at halftime, cut it to 5 after three, and trailed only 45-42 early in the fourth.

That’s when Nick De Jong scored his only two points of the game, on a third-chance basket that kept the Tigers at arm length. Nick Finney then buried back-to-back three pointers to ice it.

Finney’s 16 points was high man for Pella. Donovan Holterhaus added 15 points and Drew Pringle scored 10 and grabbed 8 boards.

Pella is now 12-1, 6-1 in the LHC, and in solo first place after Pella Christian’s loss to Oskaloosa.

Both the Pella girls and boys will play Indianola tonight. Pregame coverage starts at 5:45 with the opening tip of the girls game at 6:00. Andrew Schneider, Brian Vande Lune and Mike Buchheit will call the action on 92.1 KRLS.