Photo courtesy of Troy L. Hugen Photography

Making the short trip to Knoxville Tuesday night, the Pella Christian boys basketball season came to an end with a 55-39 loss to Grand View Christian in the Class 2A District 10 Championship game heard live on the KRLS2 stream.

The Eagles started the game strong, knocking down their first four three-point attempts to build up an early 12-6 advantage, before ending the first quarter with a 17-14 lead. Pella Christian slightly grew the advantage in the second quarter, outscoring the Thunder 11-10 to take a 28-24 edge into the locker room. Grand View Christian made their move quickly out of halftime, using a 7-0 burst to take a 31-28 lead one minute into the third quarter, and from there, the Thunder maintained control the rest of the way. Grand View went on to take a 15-3 advantage in the third quarter to hold a 39-31 lead into the final eight minutes of play, then used a 16-8 fourth quarter to secure the 16-point victory. Senior Cooper Spronk was the lone Eagle to reach double-figures scoring in the loss with 10 points. Head coach Marv Van Wyk, who announced after the contest that Tuesday was his final game coaching at Pella Christian after 32 years, said that he appreciated each player’s hard work and dedication to the program.

“I’m just so proud of these guys. I loved coaching these guys. They’re just such phenomenal young men and just a joy to coach and a joy to be around. They were just really good teammates to each other all year long, even though, obviously we went through some ups and downs during the season…I just love these guys to death and I’m going to miss them.”

The Eagles end the season with a 10-14 overall record and will graduate seven seniors in Spronk, Deacon Branderhorst, Landon Fransman, Wyatt Snyder, Ethan Van Arendonk, Josiah Vink, and Rob Schreur.