The Pella girls and boys basketball teams defeated Indianola Tuesday evening in a Little Hawkeye Conference doubleheader, the girls winning 56-46 and the boys winning a thriller 54-51.
The Pella girls took advantage of ice-cold Indianola shooting from deep in the first half to lead 13-7 after the first and 27-14 at halftime. Indianola would get the deficit down to just eight points multiple times, but would never get closer than that despite shooting 15/22 on free throws in the fourth quarter, as Pella would shoot 12/13 from the charity stripe to close out the game. Head coach Blaine Forsythe said after the game the team had to battle exhaustion along with other factors after four games in six days and an overtime game on Monday to get the win.
“Really proud of our response. To play three back-to-back games over the last week and a half is tough physically, is tough mentally, but our girls continue to respond with everything we threw at them. Super proud of them, super glad we are done with the back to back games without practices. So a lot of growing throughout the week and a half and a lot of things we can clean up now that we have some practice time but also some really good things we can take from that stretch.”
Abby Warner led Pella with 23 points and 7 rebounds, while Alexa Guyer had 17 points to lead the Indians.
The Indianola boys led for the majority of the contest as they came out firing with four George Blake three-point buckets in the first quarter as they would lead 14-13 after the first and 24-22 at halftime. The Indians maintained that lead throughout the second half, however were not able to push it past five and Pella eventually pulled ahead late in the fourth, and a game-tying three-point shot from Blake didn’t go down. Head coach Jeff Ebling said it was a situation that his guys haven’t been in a ton this season, and can be a learning experience in the future for knowing how to close games out.
“Our young guys are working on how to win games, it’s something you can’t simulate in practice against the scout team. You have to be in these situations and unfortunately for us we didn’t get it done tonight. But we competed for the entire game, and defensively was probably one of our best efforts of the season.”
Blake led all scorers with 24 points, while Cameron Rowe of Pella had a clutch bucket in the fourth to put Pella ahead and led the team with 17.
Indianola will host Pella Christian on Thursday, while Pella hosts Dallas Center-Grimes on Friday.