The first home doubleheader of the new winter season for the Pella basketball teams went the way of the road teams, as North Polk swept the Dutch boys and girls Tuesday night in a twin bill heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

The #4 in Class 4A Comets won 73-46, while the boys from North Polk pulled away late 57-49 in the season opener. In the nightcap, the Dutch led for most of the first quarter — but as was the story for much of the evening, several costly turnovers allowed the Comets to not only stay in the game, but pull away to a ten-point advantage several times just before and after halftime. But Pella was able to pull the contest back into a 43-all tie at the end of the 3rd. The Dutch even took the lead a few times in the 4th, only for the Comets to score more after a handful of late turnovers.

Pella overcame foul trouble due in large part to the play of Tyson Barnes and Brayden Traetow off of the bench, who scored 10 and 8 points respectively, and Luke Hardman tallied 13 points and three steals.

In the girls opener, the highly-ranked North Polk squad opened on an 8-0 run and never looked back, despite the home team Dutch hanging tough and keeping the margin close to that mark into the halftime break. But the Comets came firing out that pause and opened up their double-digit advantage in a hurry.

Head Coach Blaine Forsythe:
“There are 2-3 things that we can focus on in practice to improve as a team and continue to improve with each opportunity that we get. You never want to be down at halftime, but I thought we were in a position to clean up and control a few things going into the 3rd quarter. We weren’t able to take advantage of a well-coached North Polk team and it got away from us. These are the types of games we need at the beginning of the season to move forward.”

Kylie Tauke led the way with 12 first-half points, with Kennedy Van Vark adding eight.

Pella’s boys are 0-1 and the girls are now 1-1, and both travel to Norwalk Friday to open the conference season (92.1 KRLS).