by Cameron Vander Wal
Pella’s basketball teams started the 2020 Little Hawkeye Conference schedule with a clean sweep over the Cardinals of Newton. The Lady Dutch beat Newton by a score of 72-43 and the Little Dutch, 63-41 as heard live on 92.1 KRLS.
The girls began taking control over the game after their 11-0 run to end the first quarter and they never let off the gas after their hot start. They kept the Newton girls from getting back in the game with some tough defense by all individuals on the court.
Head Coach Jerod Garland says that the girls’ hustle created good momentum for them.
“It was good because we’ve had spurts this year at showing really nice things and were hoping we’ll get those spurts to last longer. We saw that tonight. We were jump started by hustle a lot. There’s a couple plays where we had multiple girls on the floor and those are the things that we need. They give you some juice as a team, they get your bench excited, they get teammates excited.”
Sophomore Reagan Van Wyk led the Lady Dutch with a game high 20 points, and she also had five rebounds to guide them to victory. Fellow Sophomore Bailey Van Voorst had 11 points and five rebounds, with two steals.
The first half of the boys game was a close defensive battle while the Dutch were held to a season low 26 points in the first half of a tie game. Pella broke the second half open by using their defense to create transition offense. The Dutch held Newton to 15 points in the second half and only one made shot in the fourth while the starters were playing.
Head Coach Derek Schulte says that eliminating the Cardinals’ threes helped create good offensive opportunities on the other end.
“One of our goals defensively is always to try and take away the other team’s best stuff. When you look at their two guys that can shoot from the perimeter, that’s what makes them dangerous. We make them earn it two at a time. It was good to see us take them off the line. They hit a three right away to open the half then we did a nice job after that point and it led to transition opportunities. Treyton did a great job getting out into transition and Logan had some good attacks to the basket.”
Seniors Treyton Sturgeon and Logan Shetterly led the way for the Little Dutch. Sturgeon had 18 points, along with 3 steals and 2 blocks. Shetterly managed to get 17 points of his own.
The Lady Dutch improve their record to 5-4 and 3-1 in conference play. The Little Dutch improve to 6-2 and 2-2 against their Little Hawkeye opponents. They will be back at home Friday night for a girls-boys double header against the Indians from Oskaloosa.