The Pella basketball teams earned their second consecutive non-conference sweep on Tuesday at home, this time against the #7-ranked Gilbert girls and undefeated Tigers boys, as heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

The Dutch girls held off a late charge to win 58-54 over the road team and the Pella boys pulled away in the final minutes 79-72 against Gilbert.

Pella’s girls fell behind 12-2 early and seemed to struggle with the intensity of the Tigers defensive attack. But a flip switched from there, and the Dutch would outscore their opponent 26-5 over the course of the next several minutes. Jenna Oltman paced Pella with the top scoring line for the second consecutive night, tallying 15 points and eight rebounds; Sophomore Mykaela Vincent scored 13 points and added three boards. The game marked the third time in the past four games that the Pella girls have knocked off a ranked team.

A total of 26 ties or lead changes on the scoreboard highlighted a thrilling back-and-forth between the Dutch and Tigers just over a month after the two schools clashed twice in three weeks to end the football season with high stakes in both. Neither team would lead by more than six until the Dutch briefly stretched their advantage to nine points in the final few minutes.

Jack McGuire led Pella with a 19-point, six-rebound performance and Austin Schulte scored 12 of his 17 points in the second half.

Pella’s girls improve to 6-2 overall and will likely find themselves in the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union rankings while the Dutch boys are up to 3-2 overall; both will finish the 2024 portion of the season on Friday in Newton.