Defending class 2A state champion Western Christian hit Pella’s boys with an early haymaker, and the Dutch never fully recovered as the Wolfpack cruised to an 83-63 victory Saturday afternoon at Pella High School in a game heard live on KRLS2.

It was a similar start to Friday’s loss at Knoxville, as Western Christian nailed four first quarter three pointers and opened up a 20-4 lead after eight minutes. Derek Schulte’s Dutch played them mostly even the rest of the way, but it proved to be too big of a hole to climb out of.

“It’s great to play an elite team – one of the best teams in the state regardless of class. We knew that when we added this 22nd game, we knew how good they are and it was an opportunity to test ourselves. As we’ve gotten further into our schedule, and after we scheduled this, we realized that our first eight games are all that way. But I think it’s one where the difference in the script (from Friday at Knoxville) was our response.”

Western Christian only outscored Pella 63-59 over the final three quarters, but Schulte says that there are no moral victories and they have to string 32 minutes together.

Jack McGuire led the Dutch with 16 points and Austin Schulte added 12. Pella is now 4-4 on the season and they’ll join the girls for a Little Hawkeye Conference doubleheader on Tuesday night at Oskaloosa.