Photo courtesy of Mason Westerkamp
Overcoming a slow start offensively Monday night, the Pella Christian girls basketball team used a 30-point second half to down Albia for a 39-31 victory heard live on 92.1 KRLS.
The Eagles struggled in the first eight minutes of the game, connecting on just one of their eight shot attempts in falling behind 8-3 at the end of the first quarter. Offense remained hard to come by for Pella Christian in the second quarter, as they shot just two of ten in the period, and a late Lady Dees surge pushed the deficit to 18-9 at halftime. The script flipped out of the break, as the Eagles outscored Albia 15-7 in the third quarter and pulled back within one at 25-24 going into the final eight minutes. After opening the final period scoreless for the first minute, Pella Christian ended the drought with a Faith Kacmarynski layup and nabbed their first lead of the game with 6:41 remaining. The two teams traded the next three baskets before Faith knocked down her second three-pointer of the game with 3:49 left to play to give the Eagles a 31-29 advantage, and PC held on the rest of the way. In the second half, Pella Christian outscored the Lady Dees 30-13, and overall held all nine Albia players to see the court to single-digit scoring. The Eagles were led on the night by the Kacmarynski sisters, with Faith contributing 14 points, seven rebounds, and six steals, and Rachel adding 13 points and 13 boards in helping Pella Christian improve to 6-9 overall on the season. Faith said that it wasn’t their best game of the year, it was a big confidence boost for the team to pick up the victory.
“It’s really nice to get a win, but it’s even nicer to know how we did it. We gritted through the second half, and that’s going to be important for us against Oskaloosa on Friday.”
The Pella Christian girls are off until the Homecoming doubleheader against Oskaloosa on Friday, while the Eagles’ boys squad returns to the court tonight to host Fairfield on Eagle Lane in a game that can be heard live on the KRLS2 stream at KNIAKRLS.com and watched on the Pella Christian YouTube channel. Pregame coverage of the boys game tonight begins at 7 pm.