Returning to Little Hawkeye Conference action for the first time in just under a month, the Pella Christian basketball teams travel to Newton tonight for their first doubleheader of the new year.

The lone team in the doubleheader making their 2025 debut, the Eagles girls squad will look to build on the momentum of their 48-34 victory over Grand View Christian on December 19th. On the other side of the court, the Cardinal girls have competed twice since the holiday break, going 2-0 against Des Moines Hoover and Knoxville. Pella Christian head coach Brendan Foughty says that one of the keys for his squad to have success against Newton, will be how well they play on the defensive end of the floor.

“They’re doing a lot of similar things to what they did last year, offensively and defensively. Our biggest focus is probably going to be on the defensive end, ramping up our intensity, ramping up our pressure against Newton, and trying to force them into some mistakes and maybe make them play a little bit faster than their comfortable playing.”

In the nightcap of the doubleheader, the Pella Christian boys are also looking to start a winning streak in the new year, after they opened 2025 with a 69-51 victory over West Branch last Friday. Like the girls team, the Cardinal boys have also competed twice since the holidays, defeating Hoover last Friday and falling to Knoxville on Saturday. Eagles head coach Marv Van Wyk said that he expects tonight’s contest to be another tough challenge against a well-rounded Newton squad.

“They’re very balanced, they’ve got good athletes all over the floor, and they defend really well and defend physically. And so, I’m looking for that to be a really highly-contested battle, and we’re looking forward to the challenge. I just think that every game we play is going to be that way, where we’ve got to be ready to play good physical basketball and we’ve got to be ready to take advantage of the things we can.”

Hear the Pella Christian perspective of tonight’s games on 92.1 KRLS, beginning with pregame coverage at 5:45 pm.