Before tonight’s Tulip City showdown round two, the Pella Christian girls basketball team found their second win of the season, defeating Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont 48-33 Thursday evening. The Eagles dominated wire to wire, opening a double digit lead against the Rockets with a 19-8 start in the 1st quarter. Allison Van Gorp finished with 19 points and 12 rebounds, Chloe Morgan added 13 points, and Emma Witzenberg finished with nine points and eight rebounds.

The Eagles clash with the Lady Dutch Saturday (changed as of noon Friday) to begin a doubleheader that will feature rematches of two close contests that opened the Little Hawkeye Conference season back in early December.

In the December 6th matchup between girls teams, Pella pulled away late with a 19 point 4th quarter to defeat the Eagles 58-50. The Lady Dutch stand at 7-6 overall and 4-2 in league competition.

After the girls settle the score in the opener, the Pella and Pella Christian boys will clash again after an instant KRLS classic when they first played, with the Eagles finding an 84-83 victory in a double overtime thriller. Since then, it’s been the boys in green and while that have surged, winning eight in a row and placing themselves squarely in contention for a Little Hawkeye Conference championship, while the Eagles have battled through an injury to post Josh Van Gorp in what has been a roller coaster to start the new year, with a 3-2 record since January 13th.

Pella Christian Head Coach Larry Hessing says Van Gorp and the Eagles expect to be close to 100 percent tonight, and they’ll need that level of effort to knock off the red-hot Dutch. It’ll be the first time since December 13th that the preseason starting five for the Eagles will be on the floor together.

“We’re going to have to play good defense, as good as we can against a team that’s just so athletic and can really score the basketball and get up and down the floor,” Hessing says.

Pella Head Coach Derek Schulte knows this game could determine the trajectory of the conference title race, and the Eagles more than capable of repeating the end result of their first matchup.

“It’s going to be a great basketball game, great environment, with two teams that have a ton of respect for each other that are going to go out there and compete like crazy,” Schulte says. “If we defend at a high level, we’re able to rebound and hold our own on the glass, and value the basketball, it’s going to be a heck of a basketball game.”

Coverage of the girls-boys doubleheader between Pella Christian and Pella begins at 6 p.m. on 92.1 KRLS from Eagle Lane on Saturday.