The Central men’s basketball team is 4-8 overall and 1-2 in the American Rivers Conference following their 86-76 home loss to Coe on Saturday. While all five starters scored in double figures on Saturday, the depth has been one of the weaknesses of the team early in the season. After getting respectable scoring off the bench early on, a thinned out lineup only produced four bench points on Saturday. Head Coach Craig Douma says that while he doesn’t expect to get a lot of points off the bench throughout the season, even a small increase in the production would go a long way for his team.

“We won’t get a ton of bench scoring this year, it’s just the way it’s going to be. But they have to be ready to come in and knock shots down when their name is called. They can do it other ways, they’ve got to get offensive boards, putbacks, that kind of stuff, that will play a huge role too. If we can get 10 to 15 points on the bench, that would be a huge boost. And we still put up 76 points with five guys in double figures. And four of those five guys played 33 minutes or more the other night, and our fifth guy played 28 minutes. But that’s just the state of this team right now, where we’re at.”

Injuries are partially to blame for the lack of depth. Key players Thomas Sphoehr and Jaden Moody both went down with injuries earlier this season. Those two were the second and third leading scorers when their injuries occurred, and both of their returns are questionable.

The Dutch will have a chance at a major confidence-boosting victory when they travel to take on 4-8 Luther Wednesday evening.