by Ryan Kohlhof

Jan, 17 was a long day for the PCM boys’ and girls’ basketball teams, as they both took home losses at Pella.
The girls started the whole day off, trailing behind in the first half 42-23. However, in the second half, they kicked it into gear. The Mustangs’ persistence was not enough, though, and they fell 67-58. Leading the game for PCM was senior Rachel Freland scoring 20 points, followed by sophomore Katie VandeWall with 13. Leading in rebounds for the Mustangs was VandeWall with six, followed by senior Courtney VanHouweling  and sophomore Kayla Jennings with three. The girls are going on in the season 9-4
“We talked before the game about Pella’s athleticism, speed and physical play.” Coach Bret Grier said. “And they still seemed to pop us in the mouth. At half-time we talked about chipping away at the lead in four minute increments. Our girls came out and played their hearts out the 2nd half.  They played with more speed and really took control of the 3rd quarter.  We had the lead chipped down to 7 points at the end of the 3rd quarter, and eventually got it to 6 points but that was as close as we could get.  They kept throwing fresh bodies at us.  I think we can take a lot away from this game. Pella is ranked in class 4A, and is a very good team.  If we play as well as we did in the 2nd half for an entire game we have a lot to look forward to.”
PCM’s boys too found themselves in between a rock and a hard place,when they were down 36-17 at half. They tried coming back, but their efforts were to little avail, as the final was 68-53, Pella.
“All teams at all levels will see fluctuations in their shooting from game to game. Coach Fred Lorensen said. “Pella is a very disruptive team defensively, and one of the things they do is make you play at a faster pace than you are used to. The result can be a lot of quick shots. Many of those shots might be ones that you would not normally attempt.  We need to learn to be more patient as a team.  We need to get better ball movement and better player movement before we take shots.  This is a work in progress and something we need to continue to work at.”
Leading in points for the boys was sophomore Luke Greiner with 21, trailed by junior Logan Gilman with 17. Also leading in rebounds was Greiner with a total of nine and senior Chase Kuening with six. The boys are going on in the season 9-3.
Both the girls and the boys are shaking off the losses and keeping their cool going forward into the season.