The Central basketball teams will travel to Decorah this evening to take on Luther in American Rivers Conference action. The Dutch women are still in search of their first conference victory of the season at 0-3. They’ll have to contend with a team expected to finish near the top of the standings, as well as reigning Defensive Player of the Year Laura Hamilton. The Norse are 5-5 overall, but 3-0 in conference play.

The Dutch men will be looking to snap a four-game skid. Central is 4-8 overall and 1-2 in the conference. Luther comes in with the same overall record, but has an 0-3 league record. The Norse have struggled over the last several years, but have a relatively large amount of experience in their starting five. Head Coach Craig Douma says this is a game where his team’s defense needs to be top-notch.

“We’ve got to play with urgency defensively, we can’t worry about the offensive side of the ball. We have to take care of the ball, don’t get me wrong, the scoring part will take care of itself, but the defense has to spur our offense. We have to do a great job against them defensively and lock them up. And that’s what teams have done at times, they’ve been able to keep them down in scoring. So we have to come with a defensive mindset, we have to keep preaching that to the guys. We can’t have those 14-0 runs, those kinds of stuff, we’ve got to be able to answer and take care of business.”

Tonight’s doubleheader begins with the women’s game at 5:30, with the men’s game to follow at 7:30 inside the Regents Center on the Luther College campus in Decorah.