The Pella and Pella Christian basketball teams are set to renew the Tulip City Showdown tonight, as the in-city rivals compete for the second time this season on Eagle Lane.

Pella took both matchups in their home gym on January 9th, with the girls (10-8 overall, 5-4 in LHC) winning the opener 63-32 and the 3A #4 boys (15-3 overall, 7-2 in LHC) taking the nightcap 48-32. The Dutch girls enter the contest looking to build on a three-game winning streak, while the ranked boys squad is looking to bounce back from a loss to Oskaloosa Tuesday that ended an eight game winning streak. With the postseason looming, Pella boys basketball coach Derek Schulte says it’s important to not let one loss turn into a second this week.

“We know what’s ahead of us in terms of, not only as we finish Little Hawkeye Conference play, but as we push towards this final stretch and it’s important that we’re able to get back to playing the type of basketball that we know and have seen this team play. And so I think, most importantly, learn and not let it linger.”

The Eagle girls (9-9, 3-6 in the LHC), who learned their postseason bracket Thursday, are looking to end the week 2-0 after defeating Newton on Tuesday. The 2A #10 P.C. boys (11-7, 2-7 in LHC), who learn their postseason assignment next week, are hoping to end the week strong after defeating 1A #3 Burlington Notre Dame Monday and falling to Newton on Tuesday. After a slow start against the Dutch in the January meeting, Pella Christian boys basketball coach Joe Steinkamp knows they need to play better in all phases of the game tonight to secure a win.

“They really jumped us the first time we played them, and we didn’t score very well in that first half, so we’ve got to keep finding different ways for our offense to be successful. And then, defensively and on the boards, we want to be a defensive team, and we’ve had some times recently where I feel like our rebounding hasn’t been as good as it’s been, so that’ll be a big time focus for us.”

Coverage begins at 5:45 this evening on 92.1 KRLS and the Pella Christian YouTube channel.