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It definitely wasn’t pretty but the Pella Christian boys kept their perfect record in tact with a 42-37 knock down , drag out win over Newton last night in the first home game of the season for the Eagles. Newton jumped out to a 6-0 lead midway through the first quarter as the Eagles struggled to hit their shots, but the Eagles bounced back to tie it at eight before Newton hit a buzzer beater to gain a 10-8 lead after one quarter. The second quarter was back and forth and the two teams headed to the locker room tied at 20-20. The Eagles finally got a run in the third quarter and led 32-25 after three quarters but Newton refused to go away and had several chances to close the gap late in the game but couldn’t forcing them to foul and put the Eagles at the line where they connected on enough free throws to secure the win. Coach Larry Hessing said a win is a win and they’ll take it, but overall it just wasn’t a great effort from his team like he’s seen in their previous five games. He said the Eagles allowed Newton to have long posessions and keep the scoring low which worked to the Cardinals favor. Hessing said the Eagles committed silly turnovers late in the game which allowed Newton to hang around and just didn’t seem to be focused or have their normal intensity. Alex Branderhorst led the Eagles with nine points, Curtis Rozenboom had eight and Chase Carlson and Jon Holwerda each had seven as Pella Christian improved to 6-0 on the season and 4-0 in the Little Hawkeye Conference. The Eagles will work the next two days on getting re focused before hosting rival Pella Friday night in their final game before the holiday break.

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