Photo courtesy of Troy L. Hugen Photography

The Class 2A #9 Pella Christian boys basketball team held off Van Meter for a 59-53 home win Thursday night heard live on 92.1 KRLS, while the girls basketball team fell 34-26 on the road at Bondurant-Farrar.

After trading a pair of runs in the first quarter, the Eagles came away with a 10-8 lead, but Van Meter came back to grab a 22-19 edge at halftime. Out of the break, Pella Chrstian’s offense got going, scoring 20 points to grab a 39-34 advantage going into the final eight minutes of play. The Eagles stretched the lead to 10 points early in the fourth quarter, only for Van Meter to pull back within one with 3:30 minutes left to play, but the Eagles used late free throws to improve to 10-6 overall. Gilbert Flagel led all scorers with 20 points in the win, while Trey Steinkamp and Ben Van Wyngarden added 14 and 11 points respectively. Head coach Joe Steinkamp said that while they didn’t play their best basketball Thursday, they were happy to secure the win.

“We shot the ball really well tonight. We probably weren’t as sharp rebounding or on the defensive end as we need to be or we’ve been recently, so that was a little bit disappointing, but you know, we thought it was going to be a tightly contested game and it was good to be able to get the win.”

In Bondurant, the Pella Christian girls struggled to find their rhythm offensively, mustering just eight points in the first half to trail 16-8 at halftime. The Eagles more than doubled their offensive output in the second half, scoring 18 points in the final 16 minutes of play, but it wasn’t enough to avoid falling to 8-9 overall on the season. Jessa De Vries was the top scorer for Pella Christian in the loss with eight points, while Rachel Kacmarynski pulled down a team-high 14 rebounds. 

The Eagles basketball teams return to court on Monday, traveling to Burlington Notre Dame for a doubleheader that can be heard live on 92.1 KRLS beginning at 5:45 pm.