The Pella Christian girls basketball team claimed a 47-20 win at Grinnell last night, while the Eagle boys closed out the pre-Christmas slate with a disappointing 53-36 loss to the host Tigers.  

Heard live on 92.1 fm KRLS, the Pella Christian girls overcame a slow-moving first quarter to put Grinnell away with a 29-10 run spanning the second and third periods.  

Lady Eagles’ head coach Kevin Van Maanen said he was glad to get the victory, but not thrilled with how it came together.

“Things were there, we just didn’t take advantage of it. Hopefully we’ll come back Monday and be sharper, but tonight was not a good offensive night by us,” said Van Maanen.  “Our defense was good at times, and at times wasn’t very good, so it wasn’t a very clean game by us tonight.”

Jasmin Schelhaas scored a game-best 11 points in the victory for the Pella Christian girls; who move to 4-1 on the season and 2-0 in the Little Hawkeye Conference.  They’ll host Martensdale-St. Mary’s in a non-conference game on Monday.  

In the boys game, the Eagles struggled to find offense early, leaving them in a hole they were never able to dig their way out of, despite playing solid defense.

“We were just a little bit too week and a half-a-step slow on the offensive end all night, and I just didn’t think that we were very comfortable,” said Pella Christian head coach Larry Hessing after the game.  “We missed some easy shots early, and after that it just went downhill.”

Austin Vermeer was the only Eagle to reach double figures in scoring with a team-best 10 points, and Caleb Morgan came off the bench to chip in 8 points and 8 rebounds.  

The 17-point loss gave the Pella Christian boys their first defeat since November 28th and drops them to 5-2 overall and 1-1 in conference play.  

It was the final game before the Christmas holiday for the Pella Christian boys, who are off until January 6th; when they’ll host Newton.

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