Photos courtesy of Troy L. Hugen Photography

A strong second half propelled the Pella Christian boys basketball team past West Branch for a 69-51 win to open 2025 in a game heard live on the KRLS2 stream at KNIAKRLS.com.

The Eagles and Bears found themselves in a defensive battle early in the contest, with Pella Christian holding an 11-7 advantage after the first quarter. In a back and forth second quarter, each team added 14 points to their totals, giving the Eagles a 25-21 lead at halftime. Out of the intermission, West Branch guard Jayden Harris tried to keep them within striking distance by scoring all 18 Bears’ points in the third quarter, but Pella Christian added 25 points of their own to stretch the advantage to 50-39 going into the final eight minutes of play. The Eagles began to pull away in the fourth quarter, outscoring West Branch 19-12 to open the second semester with the 18-point victory. Leading the Pella Christian offense on the night were Gilbert Flagel and Landon Fransman, who each poured in 17 points  in the victory. Deacon Branderhorst also reached double figures in the contest, scoring the first eight points of the second half for the Eagles to finish with 10 points. Pella Christian head coach Marv Van Wyk said he was thrilled with his team’s composure and physicality offensively in the win.

“I think that we did a great job of finding the open guy, and when we couldn’t, we did a great job of knocking down some tough shots. So, credit to our guys. They were doing a good job of attacking the basket, and that’s one of the things that we need to continue to get better at against physical defenders that we’re going to see game in and game out. We’ve got to be able to be strong with the ball and get in the lane and we did a much better job of that.”

The Eagles boys basketball team improved to 4-3 overall on the season, and will return to Little Hawkeye Conference play on Tuesday in the back half of a doubleheader at Newton.