Buena Vista trips Central men at home

Central College Athletics

PELLA—After surmounting a 15-point setback, the Central College men’s basketball team couldn’t find a way to stop Buena Vista’s second-half inside game as the Dutch stumbled 76-68 Wednesday night.

Buena Vista sprinted to a 20-5 lead nine minutes in before the Dutch responded with a 15-4 run to bring the game within four, 24-20. Senior guard Demarco Turner (Des Moines, East HS) drained back-to-back 3’s to knot things up at 26 before a Jack Bruns (forward, junior, Story City, Roland-Story HS) layup put Central ahead 28-26. Heading into intermission the teams were tied at 30.

After eight minutes of back-and-forth play in the second half, Central jumped to a 50-44 advantage with a 6-0 run. But that would be Central’s last lead of the evening as Buena Vista replied with an 11-0 run to take a 55-50 lead.

The Beavers (7-10, 4-4 conference) scored 46 points in the paint, 30 in the second half, compared to Central’s 24. The Beavers also shot 50 percent from the floor in the second half and held a 42-36 rebounding edge.

“Offensive rebounding really hurt us,” coach Mike Boschee said. “We really need to do better at rebounding and taking good shots.”

Turner led the Dutch offense with 20 points, his fifth game of the season with 20-plus points. Forward Chris Lehmann (junior, Champaign, Ill., Central HS) added 10 points and collected a team-high eight rebounds.

With its third game in six days, Central (8-8, 4-4 conference) hosts Loras College in a women’s-men’s doubleheader Saturday at P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium. The women square off at 2 p.m. and the men tip off 4 p.m. The Dutch shocked preseason league favorite Loras 74-64 Dec. 1 in Dubuque. The Duhawks sport a 6-11 overall record and 3-5 Iowa Conference record after a 77-65 road victory over Coe Wednesday.

A video webstream and live stats of Saturday’s games will be available through the Central athletics website at www.central.edu/athletics.