A second-half scramble kept the Central College women’s basketball team’s American Rivers Conference Tournament hopes alive with a 55-50 win at Nebraska Wesleyan University, while the Dutch men fell into a tie for fourth place in the league with an 84-69 loss to the Prairie Wolves.
At halftime, the Central women found themselves trailing the winless Prairie Wolves 23-22. Still down 33-32 with 2:08 left in the third quarter, the Dutch reeled off 11 unanswered points for a 43-33 advantage early in the fourth period. But, playing on its senior night, Nebraska Wesleyan responded with a 14-0 run of its own. Looking up at a 49-45 deficit with less than 3 minutes remaining, Central came back with an 8-0 burst and hung on for the win. Guard Emily Naughton had 12 points with six assists for Central while guard Hannah Dau scored 11.
The Dutch men got center Joshua Van Gorp’s fourth 30-point night of the season but saw their dreams of a conference title repeat end with the loss. Still, Central is assured of a berth in next week’s six-team conference tourney. Van Gorp’s 30 points pushed him into fourth place on Central’s season scoring list with 567 points. Sizzling shooting lifted Nebraska Wesleyan to a first-half lead it never relinquished. The Prairie Wolves were up 27-15 at the 10-minute mark and shot 60.7% in taking a 42-32 halftime lead.
The win puts the Central women at 11-13 overall and 5-10 in the conference and sets up a win-or-go-home contest Saturday with Luther College. The Dutch men fell to 16-8 overall and 10-5 in the league, and both teams return to action against Luther College for Senior Day on Saturday.