Pella’s girls steamrolled Newton 55-23 last night, while the Cardinal boys fed off a raucous home crowd to upset the Dutch 42-38 in a doubleheader heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

In the girls game, Pella’s defense suffocated Newton to the tune of of a 26-4 halftime lead, forcing a total of 34 turnovers in the contest.  Coach Blaine Forsythe said that was a big key to the win.

“We tried to get them in the full court a little bit, and we got a couple turnovers here and there.  But really our half court defense was really solid.  We were forcing tough contested shots, which is what we want to do, and I thought our girls did a great job executing our defensive game plan.”

Anna Vander Waal led the Dutch with 15 points, including 10 in a three minute third quarter burst.  Mia Warner added 10 points and 10 rebounds as Pella improves to 10-6 and pulls back to .500 at 5-5 in conference play.

The boys game was a slugfest from the start, with Pella leading 5-4 after the first quarter and Newton enjoying a 16-15 halftime advantage. The Dutch started the second half on an 8-0 run, but the Cardinals fought back within two and outscored Pella 15-9 in the pivotal fourth quarter.

For the game, Derek Schulte’s Dutch went 0-for-20 from the three point line.

“The guys we had shooting ’em, these are excellent players.  We’re going to trust them, we’re going to live and die with them and we really like our guys in there.  We’re disappointed tonight but we’re not in a panic.  We’ve got to respond here and move forward.”

Karl Miller was Pella’s only double figure scorer with 10 points, Noah Allen added eight in his return to Newton, and Keegan Hansen pulled down 11 rebounds.  Pella falls to 11-5 overall and 7-3 in Little Hawkeye Conference play, part of a three-way logjam for second place with Indianola and Pella Christian, one game back of DCG.

Up next for the Dutch girls is a non-conference home matchup with Des Moines North on Monday night before both teams hit the road to Oskaloosa on Tuesday.