pellachristiangirls

Trailing 46-44 in the fourth quarter of last night’s class 2A regional contest against Pekin, the Pella Christian girls basketball team ripped off a 17-0 run to pull away en route to a 66-53 victory in a game heard live on 92.1 FM KRLS.

It was defense triggering offense, as the Eagles came up with five steals during that stretch, leading directly to 11 of the 17 points. Coach Brad Engbers says that it was fun watching them get it done on both ends.

“Early we thought maybe we needed to take that high post away, so we were backing off in the third quarter and squeezing off in the high post. And the girls seemed a little tentative in the third quarter with the way we were playing defense. Our success the last two weeks has been really aggressive getting those tips and deflections and steals. We told them that we were going to go down fighting the way we fight if we’re going to go down, and the girls told us that we’re not going down.”

Emma Huisman led three Eagles in double figures with 20 points, Mary Kate Bandstra added 18 and Allison Van Gorp had a 17-point 11-rebound double-double. But the game’s most impactful player was Chloe Morgan, who had a stat-sheet-stuffing six points, six steals, five assists and four rebounds.

Pella Christian improves to 12-10 on the season and will play tomorrow night in Fairfield in the regional semifinal against Van Buren. The Warriors are ranked No. 9 in the final Class 2A girls poll and beat Wayne last night 56-23.

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