The Norwalk girls and boys basketball teams defeated Pella Christian on the road Friday night in a Little Hawkeye Conference varsity doubleheader with the games heard live on the KNIA3 stream.

In the girls game the Warriors offense was explosive, outscoring the Eagles 24-8 in the first quarter and 21-7 in the second to go into half with a 45-15 lead. In the second half Norwalk put in a majority of their reserves once the game got to running clock and just outscored the Eagles by a four point margin in the second half to pick up the 68-34 win. Norwalk was led in scoring by freshman Braylyn Birmingham who had 18 points and senior Bailey Birmingham who had 17. Coach Joe Sigrist says his team has a lot of offensive weapons.

“It’s a balanced attack. It starts with our Birmingham sisters. When you have a freshman as talented as Braylyn Birmingham that can run your offense and free Bailey up on the outside and drive and kick and then Hannah Overholser who moved in from Texas came out on fire tonight hitting three 3’s in the first quarter. We brought 15 points off the bench so we just have a lot of different ways to score the basketball this year, a lot more than we had last year and the girls learned how to score last year with 18 wins.”

The Norwalk girls improve to 7-0 overall this season. The boys team picked up a 55-43 win over the Eagles in the next game. Norwalk went into half with a six point lead and extended that lead to nine by the end of the third quarter. Despite a tough run by the Eagles, the Warriors were able to hold on to improve to 4-1 on the season. The boys were led in scoring by Kaleb Foltz who had 15 points and Cameron Thomas who had 13. Norwalk boys head coach Aaron Pelzer said his team did some things well, but he is still looking for improvement in areas.

“We did some things well tonight. I think we moved the ball well. I think we guarded and besides a stretch in the second half kept them off the offensive boards which we knew was going to be key. I don’t think we played very smart down the stretch. I didn’t like some of our slot selection. I think we have to get better with time and score and just play a little bit better basketball down the stretch.”

The Norwalk girls and boys basketball teams will next compete on Tuesday against Lewis Central.