Trailing 44-38 near the midway point of the fourth quarter of last night’s Class 3A Substate 7 boys basketball championship, Pella finished with a 13-1 flurry to knock off Winterset 51-45 and advance to the state tournament in a game heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

The Dutch scored the final six points of the first quarter to take a 12-10 lead, finishing with a Tyson Barnes put back with one second left. The Huskies shot 45-percent from the three-point line in the first half as they built a five-point lead, but Pella’s Austin Schulte drilled a three-pointer at the buzzer and Winterset took a 28-26 lead into intermission.

A low-scoring third quarter saw the Huskies maintain their edge, 38-35 going to the fourth, and they scored six of the first night points in the final frame as they built their six point lead. That’s when Pella started chipping away. After going 4-for-18 from the three-point line in the first three quarters, the Dutch did not attempt a single long ball in the fourth, instead attacking the glass and scoring from close range.

“Luckily our players did a great job keeping their composure so that Coach didn’t have to worry about that (during our fourth quarter timeouts)”, said senior Cameron Rowe. “He could actually talk about scheme and he didn’t have to worry about our composure. He was telling us to keep working, we’re a fourth quarter team and played that way the whole second half of the season, so just trust in each other and work hard.”

The Dutch were clinging to a 47-45 lead when Winterset’s Sam Hensley missed a contested shot in the lane, and Luke Hardman grabbed the defensive rebound. With 42 seconds left, Winterset chose to play defense and let the clock wind down. Brayden Traetow’s driving layup was blocked, only for it to land in Schulte’s lap for the game-clinching layup with six seconds remaining. Traetow added a pair of free throws for the final margin.

Jack McGuire had a 12-point 11-rebound double-double and Hardman scored 11. The Dutch are now 15-9 and return to the state tournament for the first time since their 2021 championship season.

Pella is the number seven seed, and will play second-seeded Waverly-Shell Rock next Tuesday night at 7:15 in the quarterfinals. The Go-Hawks beat the Dutch 86-72 on February 12th in Pella.