Pella and Pella Christian’s basketball teams clashed on the hardwood for Monday night basketball, and wound up in a split between the teams in a doubleheader heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

In the opener, the Lady Dutch controlled the scoreboard for the entire contest, despite several Eagles charges throughout. Pella opened with an 11-0 lead, only for PC to tie the game at 17 all, but the Lady Dutch surged to a 33-24 lead at the half. Despite pulling it to a two-possession game several times, the Eagles could not convert on several steals late.

Pella Head Coach Jerod Garland tells KRLS Sports they held off key momentum swings and did enough to prevent the Eagles from flipping the game in their favor.

“I don’t think we ever gave up the lead, so it was nice that the girls withstood some of their rallies, because they’re too good of a team to let do that, and we knew they would make some runs and they’ve got some nice scorers,” he says. “I think they had two pretty nice runs — one in the first half and one in the second, and ultimately we were able to fend them off, which is a good sign.”

Pella finished 14-of-14 from the charity stripe, and was paced by 10 points, eight rebounds, six steals, and five blocks from Emily Holterhaus and an 11 point, six rebound night. Emma Huisman scored 18 points to lead the Eagles.

The Lady Dutch improve to 11-5 overall and 6-3 in the conference and 3rd place in the league, Pella Christian drops to 8-8 and 5-4 in Little Hawkeye play.

Pella Christian held the lead and paced the majority of the nightcap in a 73-57 win over the Little Dutch, as the Eagles boys claimed a signature win they’ve been searching for all year.

Head Coach Larry Hessing says he was most impressed with his team’s ability to play as well as they did after one of their worst performances of the season Friday against Indianola, especially against an elite Pella team.

“For them to flip it without any practices is just a tremendous credit to our players,” Hessing says. “They were really tuned in–they played the defense that we wanted them to play and offensively, we made a few mistakes, maybe took some quick shots sometimes, but we did what we wanted to do tonight on both ends.”

Jason Lai, a foreign exchange student playing for the Eagles in just his 3rd varsity game, led all scorers with his 22 points, followed by Jayden Huisman’s 16. Ryan Gustafson scored 18 for Pella, with Logan Shetterly adding 16.

Pella Christian improves to 9-6 and 3-6 in league play; the Dutch drop their second game in a row and are now 11-4 and 6-3 in the Little Hawkeye Conference.

As cold has put a stand still to most school activities in the middle of this week, both teams are set to return on Friday at home — the Eagles welcome DCG to Eagle Lane for homecoming, while Pella hosts Oskaloosa.