A wild fourth quarter of the boys game capped a doubleheader sweep for Dallas Center-Grimes at Pella High School, as heard live on the KRLS2 stream Friday night. The #9 in 4A Dutch girls fell 57-42 to the #5 in 4A ranked team, before the Mustangs boys hung on late for a 72-69 victory as both road teams stayed undefeated in conference play through the first run through.
The nightcap featured three quarters in favor of DCG, but Pella put together a late charge that narrowed the gap to just one point by the end of the first 24 minutes. From there, the teams would trade leads after the home team took its first advantage with 5:21 remaining in the 4th. Pella was up by as much as four, but a few key turnovers allowed DCG to weather the storm and escape, even as Pella had a chance to tie the contest with four seconds remaining.
The Dutch could not overcome a 45-point performance from DCG senior Kyle Cason. Jack McGuire finished with 22 points and Tyson Barnes added 13 for Pella.
In the opener, the Mustangs opened with a stampede to build a double-digit lead that Pella would whittle down to five points early in the 2nd. But it was all DCG from there, as their defense frustrated the Dutch offensive attack. Katie Scheckel finished with 10 points. Head Coach Blaine Forsythe says the road squad was too much to handle at this point in the season.
“They got after it from the tip and we weren’t quite able to slow them down in the first quarter and were playing catch up all game. Our players responded well to most of DCG’s runs and a few little things were the difference. We are happy with multiple aspects of the game and know there are a few areas we can continue to clean up. This all starts with me as the coach so that I can continue to put our players in situations that allow them to play to their strengths. We are proud of the toughness and response of our players, they kept fighting until the final horn. We have an extremely coachable group and will use this to make ourselves better.”
Pella’s boys fall to 7-5 overall and the Dutch girls lost a nine-game winning streak to fall to 11-3, and both finish with two conference losses to Norwalk and the Mustangs through the first of two trips through the league. The teams are back at home Tuesday against Des Moines Christian for a non-conference tilt, which can be heard on 92.1 KRLS and watched on Pella Dutch Live.