The first of two rotations through the Little Hawkeye Conference basketball schedule wraps up tonight with Pella travelling to Dallas Center-Grimes and Pella Christian hosting Newton.

In Grimes, the ninth-ranked Lady Dutch are 8-3 and will battle the 7-5 Fillies, while in the boys game it’s a matchup of two 6-4 teams.

The Little Dutch are coming off a 27-point loss against undefeated Oskaloosa Tuesday night, and coach Derek Schulte is looking for an opportunity to bounce back.

“The great thing about this busy week is that we get an opportunity to respond with Friday and Saturday games against two good opponents. This is a critical time for our team, and we need to respond and be smart in practice, because we have some guys who physically left it on the floor Tuesday night. But we have to continue to push forward and get better. As I told the guys in the locker room, we’re going to keep our heads up. I like the group we have in there, we’re not there yet, but I’m confident we’re going to continue to improve as a basketball team.”

Andrew Schneider and Roger DeWaard will have the play-by-play on 92.1 KRLS, beginning with pregame tonight at 6:00 from Grimes, and the opening tip of the doubleheader at 6:15.

Meanwhile, on Eagle Lane in Pella, the 7-5 Eagle girls will host the 3-8 Cardinals while the 4-6 Pella Christian boys entertain 7-3 Newton.

The Cardinal boys are led by Garrett Sturtz, the second leading scorer in the entire state of Iowa, regardless of class, with 32.3 points per game. Eagles coach Larry Hessing says that they’re well aware of what the 6’4” senior bring to the table.

“He does pose some special problems, there’s no doubt about that. We’ll come up with some kind of a plan to mix it up a little bit and try to find a way to slow him down.”

Tipoff of the doubleheader is set for 6:15 at Pella Christian High School. Trevor Castle and Wynne Veenstra will have the play-by-play on our KRLS 2 stream at www.kniakrls.com, beginning with pregame at 6:00.