The Pella Christian girls basketball team led Van Meter for three of the four quarters Thursday night but struggled to hit shots down the stretch of a 48-38 defeat heard live on 92.1 KRLS.

The Eagles forced 14 turnovers in the first half which helped them gain a 22-19 advantage at the halftime break. While turnovers helped the Eagles in the first half, they came back to haunt the Eagles in the second half. 12 second half turnovers and a 19-3 scoring run in the final six minutes of play propelled Van Meter to the victory. Joslyn Terpstra led the Eagles in scoring with 13 points. Karlie Anderson made two threes’ en route to her highest scoring output of the season with eight. Faith Kacmarynski added seven points and eight rebounds for the Eagles in the loss.

With the loss, Pella Christian falls to 2-3 on the season. The Eagles will face a tough test tonight as they travel to #2 in Class 4A Indianola. Pella Christian Head Coach Brad Engbers knows his team appears as underdogs in this matchup but said there’s a reason games aren’t played on paper.

“I told the girls in the locker room that athlete for athlete we don’t have to be afraid of anybody. We can get out there and that we have kids capable of competing against anybody. So, we’ve got to come back and play the game, we play the game every time regardless of what it looks like on paper before the game. The fact is you’ve got to come out and play each and every night, and maybe tomorrow night the number will come back our way.”

The Pella Christian boys basketball team will also be in action against Indianola tonight. The Eagles boys squad will look to utilize their height and depth to defeat a well-rested Indians squad. Tonight’s Little Hawkeye Conference showdown between Pella Christian and Indianola can be heard live on the KRLS2 stream at KNIAKRLS.com beginning at 5:45 pm.