Round two of Little Hawkeye Conference play begins tonight for the Pella High basketball teams, as they’ll travel past the county line to play Mahaska County rival, Oskaloosa. The Indians’ girls are ranked in the top 15, according to the most recent poll on ighsau.org, and in the first meet-up between the two teams in early December, Oskaloosa was able to run away with a 55 – 36 victory. The Lady Dutch are vastly improved since then, having beat both Grinnell and Norwalk, and are 4 – 7 entering play. Jessica Holterhaus is expected to be in the starting line-up despite being held out of the second half of the Newton game due to sickness. The Pella boys are fresh off a stretch of five games in eight days, which saw them go 3 – 2, including a big win over Grinnell. Coach Mark Core said that now that the schedule is a little less hectic, they can focus on being more physical, especially on grabbing some boards.
“I do think we can be a little more physical in practice than we were,” Core said. “Clearly, our defensive rebounding was not good, and that’s going to be high up the priority list.”
Tonight’s doubleheader will be aired live on 92.1 KRLS and streamed live at kniakrls.com. The dynamic duo of Jamie Brockman and Randy Sikkema will call the action, with the pregame starting at around 6:00 p.m., and tip-off at 6:15.