The Pella Christian girls basketball team saw their season slip away in the closing minutes of the second round of the Class 2A regional tournament against #13 Mediapolis Tuesday night as they fell 58-48, as heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

The Eagles struggled out of gate, connecting on just two of their first 14 shots in the opening quarter, but trailed by just seven. The two teams traded runs in the second quarter with the Bulldogs taking an 11-point lead into halftime. Out of the intermission, the Eagles defense stepped up to force 10 Mediapolis turnovers in the third quarter to pull within four. After an early run in the fourth quarter by the Bulldogs, Joslyn Terpstra turned three Mediapolis turnovers into a 6-0 run, to pull the Eagles within 48-45. Another Bulldogs turnover with just over two minutes left gave Pella Christian a chance to pull within one, but the Eagles were unable to convert, which triggered a 10-0 run for Mediapolis. Karlie Anderson would hit a three with 10 seconds left, but the Eagles season would come to a close with the 10-point loss. Interim Head Coach Kevin Van Maanen told KNIA/KRLS Sports he was proud of how the team battled.

“They’re a good team, they’ve got good players, they’ve got good shooters, but we had them there on the ropes, and I was just proud of our girls. We battled; we got down early in that first quarter, and we didn’t settle in very good, and it’s hard you know on their home court, the crowd was noisy here, so they came out starting fast but our girls did settle in. We made an adjustment to our press break and then our girls really settled in after that and did a good job with that, but just a few breaks here and there. It was close.”

The Eagles finished the season with a 4-19 record overall and 1-13 in Little Hawkeye Conference play.