Pella’s boys basketball team has won the Little Hawkeye Conference championship outright after a 79-59 victory over cross-town rival Pella Christian last night as part of a doubleheader heard live on 92.1 KRLS. Earlier in the night, the Lady Dutch knocked off the Eagle girls 44-40.
In the nightcap, Pella led just 41-39 midway through the fourth quarter, but outscored the Eagles 38-20 the rest of the way, making five three pointers in the third quarter to pull away.
The Little Dutch made five more three-pointers in the fourth quarter to squelch even a threat of a Pella Christian comeback. The win wraps up a 13-1 conference season for coach Derek Schulte’s squad.
“We talked about it a lot last year losing so many high profile names, but there are a lot of good high school basketball players left in this league. That’s why you saw so many different teams winning on different nights, and I can’t say enough about our guys competing in this league.”
Senior Grant Nelson led the Little Dutch on senior night with 18 points, Karl Miller added a 17-point 10-rebound double-double, Noah Allen chipped in 15 and Josh Warner scored 10. For Pella Christian, Eric Mulder scored 18 points and grabbed nine boards and Levi Schelhaas scored 12.
Pella improves to 17-2 overall, and comes back tonight for a boys only game at Knoxville. Pregame is at 7:00 with tipoff at 7:30 on both KNIA and KRLS. Pella Christian finishes the regular season at 11-11, 6-8 in conference play. They’re off until next Thursday’s playoff opener.
The girls contest was a back-and-forth affair, with neither team leading by more than six at any point in the game. With the game tied at 31 after three quarters, Pella’s defense started to take over. After turning it over just four times in the first 24 minutes, P.C. turned the ball over seven times in the final frame, including several costly mistakes that led to Pella points.
Seniors Faith Diers and Madison Naig led the Lady Dutch with 11 and 10 points, respectively. Joslyn Terpstra’s 12 points was a team high for Pella Christian. Allison Van Gorp faced constant double and triple teams, and was held to just five points, but scored career point number 1,000 early in the game.
Pella finished the regular season at 11-10, 7-7 in the LHC. Pella Christian is 8-13, 3-11. Both teams will start postseason play next week.
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