The Central College basketball teams made the long road trip to Decorah Saturday to take on Luther College in an American Rivers Conference doubleheader heard live on 92.1 KRLS. The Central Men’s team defeated the Norse 70-51, while the Dutch women’s team fell 78-62.
After dropping 12 of 13 games, the Central men’s team has now posted back-to-back road wins, toppling Luther College Saturday. Central jumped out to an early 21-11 lead, before heading into halftime up 31-30. Central then started the second half with a 12-2 run and was in command the rest of the day. The Dutch outshot Luther 48.3% to 33.9% and held a 41-34 rebounding advantage. Joshua Van Gorp dropped 21 points and added six rebounds while forward Caden Mauck had 13 points, seven boards and six assists. With his 13-point performance, Mauck now sits just 17 points away from 1,000 career points.
The Central College women’s basketball team hit 51.7% from the field and cruised to a 43-27 lead with 2:23 left in the first half at Luther College Saturday. After that the Norse flipped a switch scoring the next nine points of the first half and the first 13 of the second half for a game-changing 20-0 run that turned the tide. Central connected on just 23.0% of its shots the rest of the way and finished shooting 34.8% from the field on the day. The Dutch got hurt on the offensive glass, where Luther held a 21-7 advantage, leading to a 16-3 edge in second-chance points. Kelsea Hurley led the way for the Dutch 19 points while Allison Van Gorp had 18 with eight rebounds and six blocked shots. Hurley told KNIA/KRLS Sports that Luther’s speed and the fatigue of a three-game week finally caught up with the Dutch.
“Their speed was definitely a bit of an issue for our transition defense, and we had a better first half with dealing with it, and we tried to put in our press to slow it down but in the second half I feel like the press maybe wasn’t as effective and they got more opportunities. I just think we handled it as best as we could and the score was kind of deceiving in a way, where we still put in the hard work, and we just need to keep working harder and keep staying focused.”
The Central men’s basketball team improved to 6-16 overall and 3-11 American Rivers Conference play. The Dutch women’s basketball team fell to 5-13 overall on the season and 3-9 in conference play and will embark on its third consecutive three-game week. Central closes the regular season at home this week, starting with a women’s and men’s doubleheader against Buena Vista University on Wednesday.