The Norwalk basketball squads return to the court tonight for a varsity doubleheader at Grinnell. The girls game will tip off at 6:15 p.m., followed by the boys game at 7:45. Both contests can be heard live on kniakrls.com (KNIA3), starting with pregame coverage at 6:05.

The Warrior girls enter Friday at 4-14 overall and 2-9 in the Little Hawkeye Conference while the Class 3A eighth-ranked Tigers are 13-5 and 8-3. This year’s first meeting between the teams was very competitive on January 6. The score was tied 19-19 at the half and Grinnell ended up winning 42-36. The Tigers had won 12 of their last 13 games prior to Thursday night’s 57-52 overtime loss vs. Pella.

Norwalk girls coach Jill Martin says that her team is making progress against a rugged Little Hawkeye schedule. She is seeing solid energy and effort for all 32 minutes of each game and says the next step is smart effort and more consistency for 32 minutes.

“I know (we have) a pretty short bench right now, but (there is) nobody else I want to go to battle with than this group of girls,” Martin said. “They work hard, and we’re just getting them to that next level of smart and it comes with playing time and they’re getting a lot of it this year, so that’s huge.”

The Norwalk boys, who are ranked 9th in Class 4A, extended their winning streak to nine games Tuesday night with a come-from-behind 67-64 overtime win at Dallas Center-Grimes. Coach Aaron Pelzer’s team is now 13-3 overall and 8-3 in the Little Hawkeye, still tied with Newton for second place in the league standings. Grinnell is 6-10 overall and 1-10 in the conference, but was competitive in a 58-52 home loss to Pella on Thursday.

Norwalk won the first matchup with Grinnell 67-36.