Central men’s basketball rally falls short of No. 11 Washington-St. Louis

Central Dutch Athletics

Central Dutch Athletics

ST. LOUIS, MO. — An upset bid was denied Saturday afternoon as the Central College men’s basketball team lost on the road to d3hoops.com No. 11 Washington-St. Louis University (Mo.) 87-83.

In a back-and-forth game, Central trailed 44-40 at halftime, but rallied to take a 52-50 lead with 16:11 left in the game. The teams traded buckets until the game was tied at 79 with 1:44 remaining. The next possession Washington-St. Louis was sloppy with the basketball before it fell into guard Jack Nolan’s hands and he hit a 3-pointer to put the Bears up three. Central ran its offense and had a chance to tie but drew iron and Washington-St. Louis held on for the win.

“I was really proud of the fight our guys had tonight,” said coach Craig Douma. “We were right in the game and if a possession or two goes a different way, we’re celebrating a win.”

Senior forward Malik Wildermuth (Normal, Ill., University HS) had 20 points, four steals and three rebounds in 37 minutes.

“Malik played a great game tonight,” said Douma. “He had a great stat line again and was efficient.”

After a one-point first half, senior forward Kyle Smith (Grand River, New Hampton HS) poured in 13 second half points to help lead the Dutch down the stretch.

“I thought Kyle had a great game after bouncing back from a slow first half,” said Douma.

Freshman forward Caden Mauch (Lee’s Summit, Mo., Blue Springs South HS) tallied his first career statistical double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

“Extremely happy for Caden,” said Douma. “He showed a lot of fight and was big for us tonight.”

Junior guard Jamel McKnight (Austin, Texas, Hendrickson HS) had 12 points, two rebounds, two steals and two assists.

Despite losing the rebound battle 58-36, Central found other ways to remain in the game with 17 steals and shooting 21-of-27 from the charity stripe.

Central struggled shooting the ball, hitting just 6-of-26 threes and 38.9 percent from the floor.

“The most important thing this week is getting our guys through their finals schedule,” said Douma. “We’ll look to take care of business Thursday night before another ranked matchup on Saturday.”

The Dutch non-conference schedule doesn’t get easier as they host Faith Baptist Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Pella at P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium. Following Thursday’s game, No. 4 Augustana College (Ill.) heads to Pella Saturday for a 3 p.m. tip. Live stats and broadcasts for both games can be found at athletics.central.edu.

Posted by on Dec 9 2017. Filed under College Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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