Photo courtesy of Troy L. Hugen Photography

The Pella Christian basketball teams closed out the regular season Thursday night, falling in a pair of close games at Indianola heard live on 92.1 KRLS. The Eagle girls fell in the opener 49-43, while the boys dropped the nightcap 49-45.

The girls game was a back and forth contest in which neither team led by more than seven points at any time. Pella Christian held an 8-6 advantage after the first quarter, but Indianola narrowly won each of the final three quarters to drop the Eagles to 9-12 overall on the season. Olivia De Haan carried much of the scoring load in the first 16 minutes of play for P.C., scoring 10 of the team’s 16 first-half points before finishing with 14 points. Rachel Kacmarynski led the Eagles in scoring on the night, scoring all 15 of her points in the second half. 

The Pella Christian boys also had the upper hand early, grabbing a 16-12 lead at the end of the first quarter, but Indianola limited the Eagles to just 12 points over the next 16 minutes of play to take a 37-29 lead into the fourth quarter. P.C. continued to battle, pulling within two points of the Indians with just over a minute left to play, but couldn’t get the necessary bucket to avoid falling to 12-10 overall. Gilbert Flagel was the lone Eagle to reach double figures in the loss with 24 points, while Trey Steinkamp added nine.

The Pella Christian girls return to the court Saturday night for their Class 3A first round regional game against Chariton, while the Eagle boys are off until next Thursday when they begin Class 2A district play against either Chariton or Albia.