DES MOINES — It could be called deception and destruction when the Pella Little Dutch and the Forest City Indians met at Wells Fargo Arena in the first round of the Boys State Basketball tourney.

Forest City was 21-3 and Pella was 20-3, so on paper the teams appeared even. But on the floor, the Little Dutch destroyed any ideas of the teams being even with a convincing 85-50 win.

The deception came in the first four minutes of the game as the Indians used three baskets from behind the 3-point arc to tie the score at 9-9. The Indians seemed comfortable in their offense from behind the arc and were building some momentum.

Then it was destruction. The Little Dutch unleashed a defense that forced the Indians into 29 turnovers and a large number of those turnovers resulted in Pella points on the scoreboard. Pella ended the first period with a 10-3 run and a 19-12 lead after eight minutes of play. Then in the first two minutes of the second stanza, Pella hit an 8-2 run to open up a 27-14 lead.

The Little Dutch were on a roll. Along with the defense, other phases of the game came to the surface. Matt Meyers, Chris Bandstra, Nathan Buchheit and Kyle Newendorp were beasts on the boards and the outlet passes produced some sizzling fast breaks. At the offensive end of the floor, the interior passing game was a thing of beauty.

“This is about as good as we have played,” Pella coach Mark Core said. “We were able to push the tempo, which we like and we moved the ball exceptionally well. We had great depth and balance and the defense made them work for everything they got.”

In the first half, it was Nick Dorman that came off the bench to hit all four of his shots and put 10 points on the board. One of his baskets was from behind the arc and he had in inside 3-point play. Meyers had eight points for the first half and the big guy went outside for a 3-point bomb. Newendorp also had eight points in the first half and the rangy center hit all four of his first half shots.

Pella was slow getting started in the second half and Forest City cut the lead to less than 10 points at 42-33 in the first two minutes of the third period. Any thoughts of a Pella slowdown were quickly dispatched as Matt Dowie and Meyers each drained a three ball and the green wave was rolling again.

The Little Dutch finished the final four minutes of the third quarter with an 18-4 run. That surge gave Pella a 63-39 lead going into the final eight minutes and the game was over.

Not enough can be said about the depth of the Little Dutch. After the first quarter, nearly every dead ball situation Pella had, two or three fresh players come into the game. It was a revolving door of substitutions and that depth just wore the Indians to a frazzle.

That depth also showed in the scoring column. Four players were in double figures, two more had nine points and another had eight. Meyers led with 13 points while Deckar Lynch, Dorman and Newendorp each had 12 points. Bandstra and Buchheit each scored nine points and Blaine Forsythe added eight.

Tyler Putz, the star guard of the Indians led his team with 19 points, but the raging Pella defense forced him into an unusually high 13 turnovers.

Meyers spoke of the depth of his team.

“Our bench is deep,” Meyers said. “We have been successful with lots of guys contributing off the bench and it worked tonight. Our team did an exceptional job of boxing out tonight. Getting rebounds if a team thing. If everybody does their job of boxing out, the rebounding is easy.  Everybody played well tonight and we reached one of our goals. We still have some more goals to reach.”

Pella continues its march down the tourney trail Thursday night was a 6:35 p.m. battle with the Mount Pleasant Panthers.

Pella 85, Forest City 50 

Pella 19 23 21 22 — 85

FC 12 16 11 11 — 50

PELLA (85) — Matt Meyers 13, Kyle Newendorp 12, Nick Dorman 12, Deckar Lynch 12, Nathan Buchheit 9, Chris Bandstra 9, Blaine Forsythe 8, Matt Dowie 5, Teag Klyn 3, Josh Pringle 2.

3-point goals — Meyers 2, Buchheit, Dowie, Klyn, Dorman. Rebounds — Buchheit 8, Newendorp 5, Bandstra 4, Meyers 4. Steals — Buchheit 3, Lynch 3, Dowie 2, Dorman 2. Assists — Dowie 6, Lynch 6, Buchheit 4, Pringle 4, Dorman 2.