The Indianola girls beat Pella Christian 58-48 and the Indian boys beat the Eagles 59-44 as both schools wrapped up Little Hawkeye Conference play with a doubleheader heard live last night on both 94.3 KNIA and 92.1 KRLS.
It was a three-point barrage in the first half for the Indianola girls as they knocked down eight shots from behind the arc in the first 16 minutes and opened up a 34-15 halftime lead. It was 51-29 after three before a furious fourth quarter rally by P.C. ran out of time. Eagles head coach Brendan Foughty credited Indianola for knocking down several big shots in the game, but added that his team’s intensity wasn’t where it needed to be early in the game.
“Our energy just wasn’t good. We talked about it before the game, I was a little nervous about having no school and then coming and playing, things are always just a little different, and I think we saw that in the first half. Unfortunately, we just didn’t have the energy on the defensive end that we needed to have and it led to some really good looks for Indianola and they knocked them down, and then once they started hitting shots it just seemed like the energy we did have was sucked out of the gym.”
Four Indians were in double figures – Lauren Olson with 16, Madison Grover and Alexa Guyer each scored 11 and Zoe Belt added 10. Indianola finishes the regular season 7-14 and 6-6 in the LHC.
Pella Christian got 12 points apiece from Jessa DeVries and Rachel Kacmarynski and 11 points from Chloe Snyder as they close out the regular season at 7-14 and 1-11 in conference play.
The boys game was tied at 12 at the end of the first quarter before Indianola ripped off a 13-0 run to start the second quarter and the game was never within single digits after that.
“It’s funny when the ball goes in how much better you feel”, said Indians coach Jeff Ebling. “I’m happy for these boys. We’ve been having some close games here and there, besides Tuesday (at Pella), and I’m glad that we could get a win here before we have three more regular season games and hopefully we can keep rolling.”
George Blake scored 10 of his game high 32 points in the first quarter, had 21 by the end of the third and then scored all 11 Indians points in the final frame. It’s Indianola’s fifth win of the season as they are 5-13 and 5-7 in the Little Hawkeye Conference.
Landon Fransman was the only double figure scorer for the Eagles, who end the regular season 8-13 and 2-10.
Three of the four teams are now getting set for the playoffs. The one exception is the Indianola boys, who play Des Moines Christian tonight. Pella Christian’s girls open the postseason tomorrow night at home against Colfax-Mingo, the Eagle boys are off until Monday’s tournament opener against E-B-F, and the Indianola girls have more than a week off until they play Waukee to open the postseason.