The Pella Christian girls fought hard but came up a bit short,  while the boys pulled off a convincing upset win at Ballard last night.  The girls didn’t back down to the defending Class 3A State champions and 7th ranked Bombers, but fell short 56-45.  The Eagles kept the game close all the way through trailing by just one point after one quarter and at halftime, then actually held a 2 point lead midway through the third quarter, but in the end Ballard was too strong at home.  Eagles coach Kevin Van Maanen said the effort from the girls was 100 times better than what he saw in Saturday’s loss to Lynnville Sully and even though they lost, he was very pleased and feels they can take a lot from this game to build on.  Jasmin Schelhaas led the Eagles with 11 points, Paige Zylstra added 8 and Jackie Veenstra scored 7 as Pella Christian fell to 2-3 overall.  The’ll face their third ranked opponent in the last four days when they play at 11th ranked Knoxville tonight.

The Pella Christian boys had another solid all around effort upsetting the 8th ranked team in Class 3A  67-47 at Ballard last night.  The first quarter ended with a 15-15 tie, then the Eagles held a four point halftime advantage. The second half was all Pella Christian though as they outscored the Bombers 40-24 to get the win.  Once again the Eagles benefited from a balanced offensive attack as four players scored double figures led by Kyle Nikkel and Chase Carlson who each poured in 15 points.  Nikkel scored 13 of those in the second half after missing  much of the first half with two early fouls.  Sam Twedt scored 13, Jon Holwerda added 10 and Curtis Rozenboom had 8 points. Coach Larry Hesing said this was a huge win for the Eagles on the road, and he was pleased with how they played, especially given the fact that Nikkel was in early foul trouble. Pella Christian improved to 3-0 on the season and is scheduled to play a girl/boy doubleheader at Knoxville tonight starting with the girls game at 6:15pm.  You can hear the games live on 92.1 FM KRLS as well as kniakrls.com  tonight starting at 6pm.

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