Two Warren County rivals collide in Norwalk tonight when the Warriors host Indianola for a Little Hawkeye Conference girl-boy basketball doubleheader.

The varsity girls game will tip off at 6:15 p.m., followed by the boys contest at about 7:45. Live coverage is available on 94.3 KNIA as well as kniakrls.com and the Warrior Productions YouTube channel.

Indianola will be looking for a pair of season sweeps after the Indian girls defeated Norwalk 53-42 on December 16 and the boys won a hard-fought 68-65 decision.

Ranked 12th in Class 4A, the Indianola girls are 8-8 overall and 6-3 in conference play – a half-game out of second place. They survived an upset bid at Oskaloosa Tuesday night when Zoey Belt’s late three-pointer lifted the Indians to a 51-50 victory. Norwalk has lost four straight and now stands 3-12 overall and 2-7 in the Little Hawkeye.

Two players to watch tonight will be Norwalk’s Bailey Birmingham and Indianola’s Emily Naughton. Birmingham made five three-pointers and scored 27 points in the earlier meeting at Indianola while Naughton led the Indians with 19.

Tonight’s boys game looks like a great one on paper as the red-hot Warriors host one of the top teams in Class 4A. Norwalk topped Pella Christian 67-51 on Tuesday for its sixth win a row, improving to 10-3 overall and 6-3 in the conference – tied for second place with Newton. The fifth-ranked Indians are 14-1 overall and lead the Little Hawkeye at 9-0, continuing to rack up wins without injured standout Drew Kingery.

Norwalk boys coach Aaron Pelzer says his team is looking forward to a fun and challenging weekend of basketball as the Warriors take on Indianola Friday and play at defending state champion Ames Saturday afternoon. Looking back on Norwalk’s three-point loss to the Indians last month, Pelzer pointed to some crucial three and four-point swings that allowed Indianola to maintain the lead and eventually win.

“But that’s just basketball. I thought it was two good teams playing and it will be the same thing Friday night,” he said. “It’s whoever kind of gets those breaks, whoever really digs in on the defensive end and gets the stops [that] is probably the team that is going to end up on the right end of the scoreboard.”

In the December matchup, junior guard Redek Born scored a game-high 31 points for Norwalk while Brady Blake paced a balanced Indianola scoring ledger with 15.

Pregame coverage on 94.3 KNIA will begin at approximately 5:45 p.m.