We continue showcasing the top 10 moments from each of our schools, and today’s Central College memory takes us back to early December. The Dutch men’s basketball team struggled throughout the season, but one of two conference wins came in the conference home opener against Wartburg.

Central raced out to a quick lead in the first half and held off a second half rally by Wartburg for a 92-79 victory. Central went on a scoring flurry in the first half to lead 37-22 at halftime. Adam Flinn had a spectacular night, scoring 29 points on 58 percent shooting.

The offensive pace picked up for both teams after halftime, as Wartburg outscored the Dutch 57-55 in the second half. Coach Craig Douma said after the game that his team was resilient, and it was a promising start to the conference season.

“Overall very pleased with this performance because they’re a tough team. They’re gritty. And they’re going through a [rough stretch]. We’ve been there, we’ve all lost those four or five games in a row, it’s tough, and they’re trying to find ways to get confidence too. But I thought we did a good job of not giving them a lot of confidence. You knew they’d have something more in though but we held it off. We got a couple key stops when we needed to, we got some key baskets and scores and we made free throws down the stretch.”

Central went on to finish 5-20 overall, but returns all but one player from last year’s roster, and brings in a talented trio from the city of Pella this winter.