The Knoxville and Pella Christian Basketball Squads split last night on Eagle lane with the Panther girls pulling out a 44-34 grinder and the Eagle boys leading from start to finish running away in a 74-34 win. In the girls contest neither team could get into an offensive rhythm due to the defenses having control most of the way. Knoxville would take a brief lead after three quarters only to see Pella Christian come take the lead back. However, with the Eagles Leading 30-29, KNoxville went on a 6-0 run to take the lead for good. Brittany Bacorn led all scorers with a career high 19 points and Panthers Coach Matt Ritchhart told KNIA/KRLS Sports she was a major reason why his team was victorious.

Ritchhart: “She was everywhere offensively and defensively, we put her on Terpstera. I knew she scored quite a bit but until I saw in my scorebook that she scored 19, she’s just remarkable.”

Pella Christian was led by Faith Kacmarynski with seven points as the Panthers held Jocelyn Terpstra, Pella Christian’s leading scorer to just six points on the night. The Eagles are now 2-9 while Knoxville is 6-5. The boys game was the exact opposite as Pella Christian raced out to a 19-7 1st quarter lead and built it up to 26 by the halftime break and had running clock just before the end of the third quarter to a dominating win. The Eagles had balanced scoring with Niko Schirz leading the way with 12 points, Aiden Stoltz with 11 and Eric Mulder with ten. Coach J.D. Boer was happy with the balance and the fact he was able to get all his guys playing time.

Boer: “Some games some guys will score a little more in the high teens or 20s. We passed the ball really well today too, so that was nice to see from us.”

Knoxville was led by Gabe Clark, who buried five three point shots in the 2nd half for 15 points. Pella Christian is now 8-2 on the season while Knoxville drops to 2-7. Eagles squads will host Oskaloosa tonight, live on kniakrls.com KRLS2 while Knoxville is off until Friday when the Panthers host Clarke.