Central gets women’s basketball escape at Nebraska Wesleyan

LINCOLN, NEBRASKA-It took a second-half scramble for the Central College women’s basketball team to dodge disappointment before escaping with a 55-50 win at Nebraska Wesleyan University and its hopes for an American Rivers tourney berth still burning brightly.

At halftime, after a 26.6% shooting effort, Central found itself trailing the winless Prairie Wolves (0-20 overall, 0-15 conference) 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.

That puts Central at 11-13 overall and 5-10 in the conference and sets up a win-or-go-home contest Saturday when Luther College visits to close the regular-season with a women’s-men’s doubleheader at P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium. The Senior Day tilt starts at 2 p.m. Luther is also 5-10 in conference play and 10-15 overall after suffering a 71-50 homecourt loss Wednesday to Loras College, ranked No. 22 by D3hoops.com. Saturday’s winner claims the sixth and final spot in the conference tournament, which begins next Tuesday. Central last cracked the tourney field in 2021 and has appeared only twice since 2005.

But Central’s tourney hopes were hanging by a thread much of the night, largely due to some first-half struggles.

“It was a little bit of everything,” coach Justin Weiland said. “Everything was very lackadaisical, not very disciplined and we were kind of throwing the ball around. And we had a ton of good looks from the 3-point line and they just weren’t falling.
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But at the end of the day, we found a way.”

Guard Emily Naughton (freshman, Indianola) had 12 points with six assists for Central while guard Hannah Dau (junior, Paullina, South O’Brien HS) scored 11. Center CeCe Moore (freshman, Waterloo, West HS) had eight rebounds.

Central outshot Nebraska Wesleyan 35.2% to 28.1% after a 50% effort in the third quarter. The Dutch led in rebounds 44-39.

All Weiland is focused on is the game ahead.

“We know what’s at stake on Saturday,” he said. “It’s basically a conference tournament game.”

Luther defeated the Dutch at Decorah Jan. 17, 76-69.

“I thought we played a pretty good game there,” Weiland said. “Our defense was very good. That’s going to be a key. We were super physical and super disciplined on the defensive end. Offensively, as long as we find a way to attack their 2-1-2 zone and not turn the ball over so much against the press, we’ll be OK.”