The Central basketball teams were back in action Saturday afternoon at Wartburg for a conference doubleheader. It was the Knights coming away with the sweep on the afternoon, with the women falling 90-62. Central proved to be no match for the 10th-ranked Knights, as Wartburg led for the entirety of the contest. Wartburg jumped out to a 27-12 lead after the first quarter. The Dutch started to find their stride a little bit in the second, though the Knights extended their lead to 50-27 at halftime. Despite hitting 12 three’s in the contest, Central could not hold the Knights in check in the second half. Head Coach Joe Steinkamp says that the Knights were doing what they do best, and his team just couldn’t slow them down.
“Their last two games, they’ve hit 15 and 16 threes apiece. That was one of our areas of focus, trying to eliminate their threes. We just weren’t able to do that, they’re a tough team to beat at home, especially when they’re hitting threes. They play at such a fast pace that sometimes it’s just hard to get organized with your defense. And I think we weren’t really able to slow them down, the ball was moving for them and they played with great rhythm all night. When they do that, they’re really tough to stop.”
For the second straight game, only one player scored in double figures for the Dutch, as Kelsea Hurley led the way with 18 points. Central falls to 11-9 overall and 3-8 in the conference.
The Central men were looking to pick up their only sweep of the season, as their lone conference win was against Wartburg back in December. The Dutch were mostly able to hang close throughout the first half, but dropped one of the more frustrating games of the season in a 97-88 final. The teams traded buckets for most of the first half, though Wartburg held a 44-40 advantage at the break. Central was unable to contain the Knights, who led by as many as 17 in the second half. Both teams shot over 52 percent on the game, but Wartburg’s 15 offensive rebounds proved to be the difference maker. Head Coach Craig Douma did not shy away from questioning his team’s effort.
“Very disappointed. A team like Wartburg doesn’t shoot the ball very well, and we made them look good tonight. You give any team that many offensive rebounds early in the game, we were getting stops, but they kept getting more shots and more shots. Of course any team is going to be hot doing that, so we got them warmed up. I just thought Wartburg outplayed us tonight, they played so much harder than us, they had us pushed off the floor offensively, and we haven’t proven to be a good road team yet, and we showed it tonight. I hate to be so harsh, but I’m going to be real about our guys’ effort tonight, just disappointed about it.”
Caden Mauck once again topped the scoring leaderboard with 24 points, but the highlight of the game was sophomore Jake Anderson’s breakout performance. He got his chance after more injuries plagued the team, and scored a career-high 22 points. He was perfect shooting the basketball: 7-7 overall, 5-5 from three-point range, and 3-3 at the free throw line. Central falls to 4-16 overall and 1-10 in the American Rivers Conference.
Both teams will return to action Wednesday evening, hosting Dubuque in a conference doubleheader. Pregame coverage begins at 5:15 on the KRLS3 stream, with the opening tipoff of the women’s game at 5:30.