Photo courtesy of Mason Westerkamp

Following their first game of the new year, the Pella Christian girls basketball team is working to find consistency on offense with a variety of different lineups taking the floor.

The Eagles were down four players due to injuries or Winterim in their loss to Newton on Tuesday, and also saw leading scorer Chloe Snyder exit the game with an injury. With several girls unavailable, Pella Christian turned to multiple players to step up and fill roles against the Cardinals, but struggled to find success offensively down the stretch. Eagles head coach Brendan Foughty says that they are still developing their skills and recognition on that end of the floor, and added that he wants to see his team take advantage of opportunities that might come outside of their offensive set plays.

“I think at times we’re out there trying to execute so much that we get so focused on where I’m supposed to be or what I’m supposed to do, that we forget to just play the game and go make a play. And so I think, as we look at the film, we’re going to find opportunities where girls were given the ball in a position, where we talk about dominoes falling and we want to get those dominoes falling, and I felt like tonight we would get the first domino to fall and we had trouble keeping them falling. So really offensively, the game of basketball is about creating an advantage and then keeping that advantage with good decision, after good decision, after good decision whether that’s dribble, pass, or shoot, and we’re just not quite there yet.”

The Pella Christian girls will look to bounce back from the loss to Newton on Friday, hosting the first edition of the Tulip City Showdown against Pella on Eagle Lane.