Photo Courtesy of Troy L. Hugen Photography

The Pella Christian basketball teams had their home openers Tuesday night and were swept by Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont. The Eagles’ girls fell to the Class 2A #6 ranked Rockets 67-42, while the boys were defeated 64-55. 

The Pella Christian girls went back and forth with the Rockets in the first quarter and despite holding multiple leads, it was EBF that held a 19-16 advantage at the end of the period. The Eagles continued to hang tough with the Rockets in the second quarter, going into the intermission trailing by just five, 34-29. The second half would be a much different story for Pella Christian however, as Eddyville held them to just 19% shooting in the half while pulling away to take the game 67-42. Faith Kacmarynski led the Eagles offensively with 13 points, while Joslyn Terpstra added nine and Karis Fikkert had six.

In the nightcap of the doubleheader, the new-look Pella Christian boys squad struggled to match the physicality of the Rockets. Eddyville led nearly wire-to-wire, as the Eagles only lead of 16-15 in the second quarter lasted just 25 seconds. The Rockets extended their lead to as many as 12 points in the second half, and despite P.C.’s best efforts to chip away at the deficit, they would ultimately fall short 64-55. Tysen De Vries led all scorers in the game with 22 points, while Aiden Stoltz was the only other Eagle in double figures with 11. Pella Christian head coach J.D. Boer knew his team faced a tough test Tuesday, and said that he and the team will learn from this game moving forward.

“Give those guys a ton of credit. Eddyville is a tough team. Those guys are ready to play tonight. Those guys were great on the defensive end, nothing came easy for us all night long. They’re really tough around the basket. They used their size well to rebound. As far as how we played, you know, I didn’t necessarily enjoy the way that we responded to that level of physicality, and with a young team there’s going to be growing pains for sure. And I thought those showed through here tonight, you know, there was glimpses of us playing well, but a lot of things for us to learn from. ”

The Pella Christian girls fall to 0-2 on the season, while the boys open the season at 0-1. Both squads will look to find the win column Friday night when they host Little Hawkeye Conference rival Oskaloosa.