As we look back at the top 10 moments from this last year at Pella Christian, our #4 moment on the countdown comes from boys’ basketball as they led wire-to-wire to punch their ticket to State for the 16th time in 32 years with a 54-32 class 2A substate victory over Des Moines Christian on February 26th.

The Eagles avenged an 11-point loss to the Lions from just a month prior by suffocating DMC’s leading scorer Adam Witty. The senior averaged better than 22 points per game this season but managed to score just two in the substate game on a late field goal. PC’s Aiden Stoltz and Tysen DeVries took turns guarding Witty man-to-man, while the rest of J.D. Boer’s club settled into a zone.

“They’re a tough matchup because Witty is really good in the middle of the floor, and sometimes in a zone you can give that up a little bit. So, we decided to play the zone and just guard Witty. It worked out really well because our guys executed phenomenally, and it helps when you can have 6’9″ (Eric Mulder) at the rim who’s changing a lot of shots, blocking a few and rebounding everything.”

Mulder scored 12 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, while Levi Schelhaas (15) and DeVries (11) combined to score 26. The Eagles won the rebounding battle 33-21, prevented second chance opportunities for the Lions, and shot better than 60% themselves.

Pella Christian improved to 18-6 on the season and earned the fourth seed in the class 2A state tournament but more on that later in the countdown.