Norwalk opened Little Hawkeye Conference basketball play with a road sweep of Pella last night in a doubleheader heard live on 92.1 KRLS, with the Warrior girls winning 69-67 and the boys prevailing 68-61.
The girls game was close throughout, with Norwalk maintaining the lead most of the way, but Pella was close on their heels all night. In the end, free throw shooting was the difference in a foul-plagued game. The Dutch were just 9-of-20 at the line, including 0-for-4 in the decisive fourth quarter, while Joe Sigrist’s Warriors made 21-0f-30.
“It was a hard fought victory. I knew it was going to be a hostile environment and they’re so well coached. There were a lot of foul calls and the game lacked a little bit of flow at times, but they hit some big shots and we made some big plays at the end. I’m so happy for our kids.”
Pella was without two starters, Abby Warner and Alaiyah Riddick, giving Madi Harmon and Katie Scheckel a chance for their first ever varsity starts. Coach Blaine Forsythe was happy with the way those two and the rest of the bench helped pick up the slack.
“Madi had 10 points and knocked down two big threes. Scheckel is a strong presence in the paint and a great athlete. So for both of them to come out and execute and play our style of basketball was awesome. I’m super proud of them and our entire team.”
Bailey Birmingham was the game’s leading scorer with 27 for Norwalk, including 14-of-23 at the free throw line. Ava Carlson scored 14 in the first half and finished with 17, while Ellie Dueland scored 10, all in the second half. Pella got 17 points from Kennedy Van Vark, 11 from Tristan Gordon and 10 from Harmon.
The third-ranked Warriors are 5-0, while Pella falls to 2-2.
In the boys game, Pella jumped out to an 8-0 lead, only to see the Warriors charge back to tie it 12-12 at the end of the first quarter and build a 30-21 advantage at halftime. They led the entire second half, mostly in double digits, though Pella did pull within six at one point in the third. After a tough season-opening loss to Ballard Tuesday night, Norwalk coach Aaron Pelzer was happy with a much-improved performance in game two.
“We didn’t focus as much on winning and losing tonight, I just wanted us to be better than we were Tuesday. So we targeted some things we thought we could get better at, and the guys pretty much executed all of those things tonight. They should enjoy it, but it will be a short turnaround and we’ll be right back to work.”
Redek Born scored 29 to led all scorers, including 9-for-9 at the free throw line after making just 2-of-5 Tuesday. Cameron Thomas and Jack Larson each scored nine. Norwalk is now 1-1.
Pella was also coming off of a season opening loss on Tuesday and looking for an improved performance last night. While it was there at times, the offense disappeared for too many long stretches for the second straight game. Coach Derek Schulte says that it wasn’t for a lack of effort, but they weren’t able to get the job done.
“I love our guys battle. Our guys battled to the end and we know that about this group, they’re going to play extremely hard. The truth is, we’re a work in progress here early. We’re not where we want to be, but we also know that this team has some real potential to move forward and learn from this.”
The Dutch had three scorers in double figures – Luke Hardman with 18, Cameron Rowe with 16 and Brayden Traetow with 10. They’re now 0-2 on the season.
Up next for Norwalk is a home doubleheader with Winterset on Monday, while Pella has a home twinbill against Washington Tuesday.