Photo Courtesy of Troy L. Hugen Photography

The Pella Christian basketball teams travel to Grinnell tonight for their first road Little Hawkeye Conference doubleheader of the season.

The Eagles girls enter the game with a 1-5 overall record and 0-2 conference record, while the Tigers are 3-3 overall and 1-1 in league action. Grinnell has dominated the matchup for most of the last decade, winning the last 16 meetings since 2014. Pella Christian won the eight prior meetings, with the last win over the Tigers coming on February 8th, 2013.

In the boys game, both schools hold 2-2 overall records so far on the season, while Pella Christian is 1-1 in the conference and Grinnell is 0-2. The Eagles dominated Grinnell in both contests between the teams last season and have won seven of the last 10 games in the series. Pella Christian is coming off their first conference loss of the season, and junior guard Tysen De Vries says the key to the team’s success remains the same as their previous contests.

“Just being tough. Not letting other teams bully us in the paint or just on the outside while driving into the paint and just not getting off knocked off your line to the basket. And in practice, it’s just over and over just going at each other, just trying to make each other better with being tough on the offensive rebounds, defensive rebounds, and just being physical overall playing defense.”

Coverage of Pella Christian basketball at Grinnell High School tonight begins with pregame at 6 p.m. on 92.1 KRLS, followed by tip-off of the girls game at 6:15 p.m.