Pella started off 2025 with a blowout victory over the Knoxville girls, 69-14, then the Panther boys returned the favor with a 64-41 stunner over the Dutch in a doubleheader heard live last night on 95.3 KNIA and 92.1 KRLS.
Lincoln Norris was the star of the night, pacing Knoxville with 28 points as they lead wire-to-wire. He hit three first quarter three pointers as the Panthers built a 22-11 lead. A second quarter Pella run trimmed the deficit to just six at 24-18, but Knoxville closed the half on a nine-nothing run and started the third quarter 16-3 to take control.
“We so appreciate all of our fans coming out and believing in us. Obviously they packed the gym and so did Pella”, said Panther coach Joel Keady. “We don’t take it for granted every time that we get to step out of our conference and play a good team like them, especially one that is so close. We know that the rivalry is a big game for everybody and we’re happy to compete a little bit more than we have in years past and come out with a win.”
It’s Knoxville’s first win over Pella since 2006 and snaps a 23-game Dutch winning streak in the series.
Kaiden Smith was the other Panther in double figures with 11 and Brayden Traetow led Pella with 10. Knoxville improves to 5-0 on the season while the Dutch drop to 4-3.
The girls game followed a similar script, but with Pella jumping out early. It was 21-2 after the first and 45-7 at the half, leading to continuous clock for the final 16 minutes.
“Christmas break is a long time and it’s a lot of practice time”, said Dutch head coach Blaine Forsythe. “We tried a lot of different things, and so for our girls to come out here and compete at a high level and I feel like kind of take a step right where we left off just showed a lot of character about our players. We were able to play all 13 girls, which is always great for us, and all of them contributed in different ways.”
Pella limited Hannah Dunkin to a team-high four points as a suffocating Dutch defense forced 31 turnovers. Katie Scheckel had 17 points, Ella Tousey put the cherry on top with 11 fourth quarter points and Avery Parks had nine points, four rebounds and three steals. Pella improves to 8-2 while Knoxville falls to 2-5.
Three of the four teams are right back in action today. The Panthers play Newton in a girl-boy doubleheader at Wells Fargo Arena that starts at noon. Hear the Knoxville perspective on 95.3 KNIA, beginning with pregame at 11:45. Pella’s boys host defending class 2A state champion Western Christian this afternoon at 2:30, and we’ll have live coverage beginning with pregame at 2:00 p.m. on the KRLS2 stream and Pella Dutch Live. Pella’s girls are off until a Tuesday conference doubleheader at Oskaloosa.