The Indianola girls basketball team blew out Newton 63-23 Friday night at home in the Little Hawkeye Conference opener, while the Indianola boys fell after a close contest with the Cardinals 47-39 in a doubleheader heard live on 94.3 KNIA.

The boys trailed for the entire contest, spotting the Cardinals a 15-4 lead in the first quarter, but managed to climb back to get the game back within four points to trail 15-11 after the first, then 27-21 at halftime. After starting out the half on a 4-0 run, the boys would trail by no more than four points until the late fourth quarter, trailing by one point multiple times but were unable to take the lead after multiple missed layups throughout the contest. The Cardinals pulled away late to put the game away, hitting multiple free throws down the stretch. Andrew DeWall scored 11 points to lead the Indians, while Jack Bingaman scored 10.

The Indians girls gave up just two first quarter points as they dominated defensively from start to finish, leading 14-2 after the first and 28-11 at halftime. Starting point guard and leading scorer Lauren Olson went down with an injury in the second quarter, but the Indians came out firing in the second half to put up 21 third quarter points to seal the victory. Head coach Jeff Janssen tells KNIA Sports the girls knew they needed to be ready to step up defensively all game, and with the injury they came out of halftime fired up and ready to go.

“For our girls to recognize that and come out the way we did, we held them to two points and four points total 13 minutes into the game, it was impressive. We had some great talks at halftime led by the girls and had one of our best third quarters in a long time.”

Zoey Belt led the team with 14 points, while Brynn Bishop scored 12. The Indians boys fall to 0-2 and next play on Friday at Oskaloosa, while the girls are now 1-2 and host Des Moines Roosevelt on Tuesday.