Pella’s size too much for Mustangs

PELLA — There is a lot to like about Prairie City-Monroe’s girls’ basketball team.

What there isn’t, however, is height. And that lack of height caught up to the Mustangs on Saturday against a bigger and stronger Pella squad.

In a battle of ranked teams, the Class 4A No. 12 Lady Dutch used their size to jump out to an early advantage and then held off a charging Mustangs’ squad in the fourth quarter during a 67-58 win.

Besides being much shorter inside the paint, Class 3A No. 15 PCM also missed 10 foul shots in losing by nine.

“We dug ourselves too big of a hole way too early and that ultimately was the game,” PCM coach Bret Grier said. “The girls fought back hard and made it a game. I was really glad to see that.”

The game had blowout written all over it at halftime as Pella led 23-14 after one and 42-23 at the break.

“They got some offensive rebounds, and they just beat us down the court,” Grier said. “I tried to tell the girls that they will try to push the ball down the floor, but I didn’t expect them to push it right passed us.”

The Mustangs refused to quit though.

The guards jumped out in passing lanes and created some turnovers in the third, and that led to buckets at the other end.

A 12-3 run during the third improved the Mustangs’ deficit to seven. The margin stayed there heading into the fourth, but PCM never got closer than that the rest of the way.

“We wanted to get it down to 14-15 midway through the third and 9-10 by the end of the third,” Grier said. “We did that, but (Pella) got a big bucket whenever they needed one and took the wind out of our sails.”

Pella scored two quick buckets to go back up 11 and PCM couldn’t get the deficit to single digits until Courtney VanHouweling hit a pull-up jumper with about 2 minutes to play.

“After the first half, I thought we played well,” Grier said. “We matched their intensity and probably played our best game in that second half.”

PCM outscored Pella 19-7 in the third to make it interesting. Seven of those came from Rachel Freland, who scored 20 points to lead all Mustangs.

Katie VandeWall also put in 13 points, grabbed six rebounds and had three steals. Grier decided to keep his sophomore forward in the game despite picking up her fourth foul in the third.

She eventually fouled out with three minutes to go in the game.

“Katie played really well, maybe her best game of the year,” Grier said. “We just didn’t want to take her out of the game. And we don’t have a lot of depth. I wanted to burn the midnight oil.”

VanHouweling and Kayla Jennings each scored nine for PCM. Jennings also had a team-high four steals.

Jessica Holterhaus came into the game averaging 9.4 points per game but finished with 22. Mackenzie Gustafson and Katie VanderMolen each added 13 in helping the Lady Dutch (10-2) win their eighth straight.

PCM 69,

South Hamilton 17

JEWELL — The 15th-ranked Mustangs started fast and put the game on cruise control in the second half.

PCM led 51-7 at halftime and turned things over to the reserves in the final 16 minutes.

VanHouweling scored 17 points and had seven steals, while Freland put in 16 and added three assists and three steals in the easy win.

The Mustangs are now 9-1 in HOIAC play. Since dropping their first conference loss to Gilbert last Friday, the Mustangs have outscored their last two HOIAC opponents 136-48.
South Hamilton (1-10, 1-9) dropped its eight straight game.

Jennings finished with five points, 11 rebounds and four assists for PCM, while VandeWall and Alexis Timmons ended up with seven points apiece and Bailey Broderson collected six.

PCM hosts Roland-Story on Tuesday. The start time is slated for 6 p.m.

PCM 14-9-19-16—58
Pella 23-19-7-18—67

PCM (FG/3-pt): Gulling 3-1-4-7, VanHouweling 2/1-4-4-9, Freland 8/1-3-4-20, VandeWall 5-3-5-13, Jennings 3-3-1-9, Vos 0-0-2-0. TOTALS: 21/2-14-19-58.

Pella (FG/3pt):Gustafson 5-1-2-5-13, VanderMolen 4/1-4-4-13, Holterhaus 9-4-1-22, Borgerding 3-0-1-6, Buchheit 2-1-5-5, Terpstra 3-0-1-6. TOTALS: 26/2-13-18-67.