Photo Courtesy of Troy L. Hugen Photography

The Pella Christian basketball teams opened Little Hawkeye Conference action Friday night with a split against Oskaloosa in a pair of games heard live on the KRLS2 stream, as the boys dominated in a 62-46 victory while the girls fell 43-41.

The Eagles boys took control of the game early and never looked back, as they scored 15 of the game’s first 21 points to grab a 15-6 lead at the end of the first quarter, then built the lead to 25-15 at halftime. Both teams got the offense rolling in the third quarter, as Pella Christian outscored the Indians 25-22 in the period, before putting the finishing touches on Oskaloosa to improve to 1-1 overall and 1-0 in conference play on the season. Tysen DeVries led all scorers in the game with 17 points, while Benny Schirz came off the bench and was the game’s second leading scorer with 15 points.

In the girls game, the Eagles and Indians were locked in a tight battle throughout the night as neither team led by more than four points at any point in the contest. Despite leading for most of the first quarter, Pella Christian trailed at the end of the period 11-10, and fell behind 23-19 at halftime. The Eagles took back the momentum in the third quarter, outscoring Oskaloosa 14-10 with Joslyn Terpstra’s three pointer seconds before the end of the period giving P.C. a 35-33 lead. After nearly three scoreless minutes to begin the final quarter, the Indians went on a 10-6 run to end the game and drop Pella Christian to 0-3 overall and 0-1 in conference play. Terpstra posted a double-double in the loss with 11 points and 13 rebounds while Karlie Anderson, Faith Kacmarynski, and Maggie Heinen each contributed six points.

Both the Pella Chrisitan boys and girls basketball teams are back in action Monday for a home non-conference doubleheader against PCM.