Flinn hits 29 in rewarding Central men’s basketball victory
PELLA—The challenges that preceded it made the Central College men’s basketball team’s 74-68 triumph over Coe College Saturday even more gratifying.
A delayed start to the preseason after enduring a 5-20 campaign last year, a 14-day quarantine that pushed back the launch of the regular season, no scrimmages and only four practices before finally opening the year Wednesday, and then suffering an 80-61 beating at Simpson College. But just three days later was the kind of Dutch turnaround that not even coach Craig Douma envisioned.
“This win, with what our guys have gone through, is unbelievable,” he said. “I got kind of emotional afterwards because what they did today shouldn’t happen. The odds were not in our favor.”
But the win that guard Adam Flinn (senior, St. Louis, Mo., Lafayette HS) helped nail down with four free throws in the final 15 seconds as part of his game-high 29 points, was made possible by the determination Douma saw in his team Friday night.
“I thought that win happened yesterday,” Douma said. “It happened in the film session and in practice. We had a hard practice. We showed them what Wednesday night looked like and we focused on both ends of the floor. We challenged them and they stepped up. I couldn’t be more proud.”
Central (1-1) took a surprising 22-11 lead that Douma attributed to a tone-setting defense. But a 16-4 flurry for the Kohawks gave them a 27-26 advantage before Central secured a 29-27 lead at the break. The game remained tight in the second half but the Dutch never trailed, although Coe (2-2) cut the lead to 67-66 with 1:01 left and had a chance to move on top with 30 seconds remaining before misfiring on a pair of free throws. That’s when Flinn took over from the stripe, with forward Caden Mauck (senior, Kansas City, Mo., Blue Springs South HS) adding a free throw as well.
It was Senior Day and Flinn and Mauck both came up big. Flinn had 29 points and six rebounds while Mauck notched his 13th career double-double with 11 points and 10 boards, along with a game-high five assists.
“Both of those guys stepped up,” Douma said. “We didn’t win on Senior Night last year and it’s a nice way to honor them.”
Others came through as well.
“I thought the X factors were Sam Beatty (sophomore, Mount Pleasant) and Kole Tupa (freshman, Center Point, Center Point-Urbana HS),” Douma said. “Sam hit some big baskets in the second half. And then Kole grinded out six points and I thought he came up with some big boards for us, too.”
Beatty, a guard, made his first collegiate start and had a career-best 14 points. Tupa, a forward, added six points and three rebounds in 15 minutes of action. Douma also cited guard Drake Johnson (sophomore, Stanton) who had eight points.
Central outrebounded Coe 39-38 and committed only 10 turnovers. The Dutch were outshot 43.1% to 41.0% but won the game at the line, knocking down 17 of 20 tries to Coe’s 5 of 10.
Sustaining Saturday’s success will be an even bigger challenge for the Dutch, who play host to the first-place University of Dubuque (8-0 overall, 4-0 American Rivers) Monday, as part of a stretch of six games in 12 days. Game time is 6 p.m. at P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium. A video webcast of Monday’s action can be accessed through the Central athletics website or directly at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/central/.
“We’ve got the best team in the league coming in and they’re good,” Douma said. “They have all the pieces on both ends. We’ve got to play at another level yet.”
