The Pella Christian basketball teams kept it close in a varsity doubleheader with Des Moines Christian Saturday, but were unable to upset the ranked Lions, with the Eagles girls falling 54-39 and the boys 44-41, as heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

It was a second half comeback that fell short for Pella Christian’s boys, as they trailed at one point 34-22 just outside of the halftime break, and had three opportunities to tie or take a lead against the No. 1 on BCMoore Lions, but missed those and ultimately fell.

Eric Mulder and Niko Schirz each tallied 14 points in the effort to lead the Eagles.

Pella Christian led at one point in the first quarter of the girls against No. 2 in Class 3A Des Moines Christian, but the Lions took control with a 10-0 run to start the second quarter and despite a few runs to within five points, the Eagles could never find enough consistency on offense.

Allison Van Gorp paced the Eagles with a 16 point, 11 rebound performance.

Pella Christian’s boys fall to 2-5 overall and the girls are 4-4; both return to Little Hawkeye Conference action Tuesday on the road to face a pair of top five ranked Dallas Center-Grimes’ teams. That doubleheader is live on the KRLS2 stream.