Back-and-forth women’s basketball battle goes against Central
Central Dutch Athletics
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — For 34 minutes it was tough to distinguish which team was nationally ranked by d3hoops.com but the Central College women’s basketball team dropped a 53-41 contest to No. 11 Wis.-Whitewater Tuesday afternoon at the Cruzin Classic.
Central (6-4) led Wis.-Whitewater (9-0) 19-17 after the opening quarter. After trading leads, the Dutch found themselves down 42-41 with 5:24 remaining in the game after a layup by sophomore forward Kendall Brown (Moravia). The Warhawks ended the game on an 11-0 run.
“I’m really proud of how we battled today,” said coach Joe Steinkamp. “I told the women that we were right there with one of the best teams in the nation. We just need to learn from this and get better for the next time we are in this situation.”
Offense was hard to come by for both teams held each other under 33 percent shooting (Central 32.7, Wis.-Whitewater 23.9).
“They are one of the best defenses in the country and we knew that going in, so to hold them to a lower shooting percentage is a tribute to our players,” said Steinkamp.
Central was led offensively by senior guard Emily Dine (Oldsmar, Fla., East Lake HS) with 13 points and three rebounds.
“It was great for Emily to be able to play in front of her family, friends and former coaches,” said Steinkamp. “She had some open looks that she was able to capitalize on and made some great plays at the end of the shot clock.”
Brown earned her second statistical double-double of the classic with 10 points and 11 rebounds, her third of the season.
“We have been extremely happy with the progress that Kendall has made throughout the season,” said Steinkamp. “We’re starting to see the results of her hard work with her back-to-back double-doubles down here.”
Former Iowa Conference Female Athlete of the Week Jessica Helton (senior, guard, Nevada) played 17 minutes in the first half before having to miss the rest of the game with an injury. Helton tallied six points and five assists during the opening half.
“Jess was playing really well before she went down,” said Steinkamp. “With her going down we had some different players playing more minutes and I was proud of the effort that everyone gave.”
Foul trouble hurt the Dutch in the second half as well, totaling 21 fouls in the game with 12 going to Central’s frontcourt of Brown (4), seniors Jackie Kriegel (5) (Marengo, Iowa Valley HS) and Tina Lane (Williamsburg) (3).
Central travels home for the Holidays and then returns to P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium for a game against Knox College (Ill.) December 29 at 6 p.m. The Prairie Fire are 7-3 on the season. A webcast and live stats will be available at athletics.central.edu.
