Dutch drop men’s basketball league tourney championship
Central College
PELLA — Senior guard Pete Walker’s (Red Oak) 28 points and eight rebound performance was not enough, as the Central College men’s basketball team fell 89-85 to Wartburg College Saturday.
Saturday’s Iowa Conference tournament championship was a rematch from last season. Wartburg earns the league’s automatic NCAA Division III tournament berth. It’s the second year in a row a team has won three straight road games to win the tourney title, Central was the first.
Central held a 43-34 lead at halftime but surrendered 55 second-half points. Wartburg outshot Central 44.8 percent from the field to 41.3 and both teams corralled 42 rebounds. The Knights connected on 15-of-16 attempts from the charity stripe compared to the Dutch’s 10-of-17.
Senior forward Colby Taylor (Creston) had 19 points and eight rebounds. Taylor finishes his career with the Dutch as the school’s all-time leader in points (1856), field goals made (633), field goals attempted (1304), 3-pointers attempted (587), 3-pointers made (233), games played (111), games started (98) and minutes played (3,320). Taylor also set the all-time free throw percentage in a season record (.925).
“Colby’s been a four-year starter for us,” said coach Craig Douma. “He’s always been a guy we could go to every night. He’s a special young man.”
Junior forward Kyle Smith (Ionia, New Hampton HS) added 10 points, four rebounds and four assists. Smith tied the school’s all-time 3-pointers made in a season record (74) with Nile Eckermann ’15 and was one 3-point attempt short of tying Eckermann’s record of 206 attempts from beyond the arc.
Senior center Ryan Kunkel (Solon) had 13 rebounds and four blocks. Kunkel ends his playing career as the all-time leader in blocks with 139 and blocked shots average with 1.7 in a minimum of 45 games played, he also set the school record for most swats in a season (65) and for blocked shots average (2.4).
Senior forward Austin Glawe (Aurelia, Sioux Central HS) and senior guard Tate Handsaker (Nevada) missed Saturday’s game due to injury.
“Austin had a tough break with his hand on Thursday night and Tate’s been out since mid-December with his knee,” said Douma.
After early-season injuries, Walker was huge for the Dutch in the final five games averaging 24.6 points per game.
“The injury bug bit us this year,” said Douma. “But our athletic trainers here are fantastic. We probably worked them more than we wanted to but they were able to get our guys ready.”
Saturday was the first loss in four trips to the league tournament championship game and first loss in three home appearances in the title game.
Central says goodbye to Douma’s first recruiting class and it’s one he won’t forget.
“These guys have set the bar extremely high for our program,” he said. “The bar has been set at conference titles, conference tournament titles and NCAA tournament bids. I’m extremely proud of this team.”
