The Pella Christian girls and boys hope to get back on the horse so to speak and rebound from their losses to Pella Tuesday when they travel to Grinnell tonight for a Little Hawkeye Conference doubleheader. The Eagle girls got past the Tigers in the first meeting at Pella Christian 52-41 but it didn’t come as easy as the final score may indicate. Eagles girls coach Kevin Van Maanen says they know the Tigers will be tough, especially at home, but more than anything he’s loking for his team to continue to improve with the post season now just over a week away.
In that first game Jasmin Schelhaas led the Eagles with 13 points and they had a strong rebounding night which included 14 offensive rebounds as a team..Jackie Veenstra led the team with nine total rebounds. Van Maanen says they need that kind of aggressiveness again tonight to win. Pella Christian is 11-9 overall and 7-6 in the Little Hawkeye Conference.

The second game will feature the boys and the Eagles will try and bounce back from another disappointing loss to Pella on Tuesday night. Coach Larry Hessing says everyone’s spirits were down after that loss Tuesday night but they need to try and forget that and focus on the task at hand which is getting back on track with a win at Grinnell. He says it’s always tough to play at Grinnell and the guys will have to be ready for a battkle to the end. Pella Christian won the first meeting between the two 60-50 with three players in double figures led by a huge night from Kyle Nikkel who had 21 points and 15 rebounds. Hessing says they need that kind of performance again from Nikkel and they need to get that scoring balance back which they were unable to do against Pella. Pella Christian is 13-4 overall and 9-3 in the LHC. Hessing says with just two conference games remaining and the post season starting in a week and a half he wants to see his guys finish strong. You can hear both games streamed live tonight with Jamie Brockman on kniakrls.com starting with the pregame at 6pm. The girls game tips off at 6:15pm followed by the boys. There will also be a delayed broadcast of both games on 92.1 FM KRLS starting around 10pm tonight.