The Indianola boys basketball team faced a 19-point deficit late in the third quarter, but completed an improbable comeback against the Pella Christian Eagles in a 60-59 win, with the girls winning 49-43 to complete the homecoming sweep of Pella Christian, as heard live on 94.3 KNIA and 92.1 KRLS.
The Eagles were all over the Indians to start the boys contest, taking a 20-6 after the first while playing stifling defense and not allowing the Indians to get an offensive rhythm. The lead continued through halftime with the Indians trailing by 11 33-22, with the Eagles coming out of halftime on fire to build the 19-point lead. Indianola went on a run to end the third quarter to get the lead down to 10, then ramped up the pressure in the fourth to begin the comeback. The Indians slowly crept back into the game, but still trailed by three with less than a minute to go. After forcing a turnover, freshman Drew Kingery hit at three point shot to tie the score at 59, then after another defensive stop AJ Toigo was fouled, and hit one of two free throws to give the Indians a 60-59 lead, which was enough to pick up the win. After holding that 52-33 advantage, the Indians came storming back in the final ten minutes, holding the Eagles to just seven points and forcing eight 4th quarter turnovers.
Indianola head coach Brett Watson says the defensive effort in that fourth quarter was his guys seizing an opportunity to attack.
“Our backs were against the wall. I said in one of our timeouts, we gotta stop being the nail. They were the hammer the whole time, they were the aggressors, they were coming at us. And finally, I’ll have to watch film and see what switched for us, but we started to finally attack, we started to finally start being the hammer rather than the nail. Momentum is an amazing thing in the game of basketball, and we were able to finally get some. We made two big runs in that game, at the end of the third quarter and the end of the fourth quarter, and I think that was the difference in the game for us.”
Pella Christian Head Coach Larry Hessing says it was a remarkable turnaround by Indianola, and feels like the Eagles couldn’t find any offensive footing when they needed shots late.
Tyce Johnson scored 22 points to lead the Indians squad. Pella Christian was led by 15 points each from Jack Vermeer and Josh Van Gorp, who also had 14 rebounds.
The Eagles girls battled hard for the second conference game in a row, but couldn’t find the shots they needed to topple the 2nd place in the league Indians.
Indianola did not play a clean game either, and were outplayed after the first quarter trailing 15-14, before finally starting to hit some outside shots before halftime to lead 25-20 at the break. The game of attrition continued to favor the Indians as they led 35-28 after three quarters, but the Eagles refused to go away after keeping the game within several possessions throughout the contest but the Indians hit enough shots down the stretch to earn the 49-43 victory.
Lauren Blake and Mara Bishop each had 14 points to lead the Indians. Allison Van Gorp had 14 points and 15 rebounds for the Eagles and Chloe Morgan added 11. Pella Christian’s girls drop to 2-14 overall and 1-8 in league play, while the boys fall to 9-6 and 4-5 in the conference. Both teams turn around to host DCG Monday.
The Indianola boys improve to 12-3 overall and 9-2 in the conference play, while the girls are 11-4 and 8-1. The girls play today at Sioux City West, while the boys wait for Dallas Center-Grimes on Tuesday.