Accelerating its offense in the second half, the Central College women’s basketball team finally put away North Central College (Minn.) 74-63 Tuesday night.

After taking a 20-15 first-quarter lead, Central (5-4) lost its shooting touch, connecting on just 15.0% (3-20) of its attempts from the field in the second quarter and was clinging to a 29-26 edge at halftime. North Central (3-5) pulled ahead 36-31 in the first 3 minutes of the second half and the Dutch still trailed 39-36 before a 9-0 run put them up 45-39 with 3:10 remaining in the third quarter. Central stretched the lead to as many as 13 in the fourth quarter.

The Dutch hit 53.8% of their shots in the fourth quarter but just 36.8% for the game. Freshman Kaitlyn Mumm cracked double figures for the first time in her young career, finishing with a team-high 12 points, all in the first quarter. Allison Van Gorp had her second double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds, and CeCe Moore had nine points and nine rebounds. Adding to the offense for the Dutch were Hannah Dau with 10 points and Kassidi Steel and Abby Johnson with nine points each.

Central returns to American Rivers Conference play with a home women’s-men’s doubleheader at 2 pm Saturday against Coe College that can be heard live on 92.1 KRLS.