Central men’s basketball squad shows layoff effects

PELLA—Ending a 19-day layoff with a shorthanded squad, Central College ended a modified men’s basketball season with a 97-67 stumble against Buena Vista University.

The loss drops Central (2-3) to sixth place in the American Rivers, sending the Dutch to a first-round league tournament contest Tuesday with third-place Loras College (4-3 conference, 7-4 overall) at Dubuque. The teams’ regular-season meeting was canceled. Tuesday’s start time has not been announced.

Central was outrebounded 45-33 and committed 20 turnovers. The Dutch were outshot, 50.7% to 39.7%. Those numbers were revealing, coach Craig Douma said.

“We’ve got to be better than that,” he said.

But after just a week of practice coming off the layoff, the Dutch performance was reminiscent of the team’s delayed season opener, an 80-61 setback at Simpson College Feb. 3.

“We did not rebound well today and we didn’t take care of the basketball,” Douma said. “Those are two stats that were glaring coming out of that first game and they were again today.

“We just are not in game shape yet. But there are no excuses. We have to demand more of ourselves.”

Guard Adam Flinn (senior, St. Louis, Mo., Lafayette HS), in his final regular-season appearance at P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium continued closing in on the 1,000-point mark for his career. He finished with 22 points and needs 14 more to become the 30th player in school history to reach the milestone, despite the shortened senior campaign. Flinn knocked down five 3-point goals.

Central remains without injured starters Keaton Rodgers (sophomore, Peoria, Ariz., Sandra Day O’Connor HS) and Marcus Ashford Jr. (Lexington, Ky., Paris HS) but Douma liked the effort of freshman Kole Tupa (Center Point, Center Point-Urbana HS) who filled in at forward. He produced 13 points, three assists, two steals and a game-high seven rebounds.

“Kole was a bright spot today,” Douma said. “He had four offensive rebounds and he really played to the end. I was happy about that and the kind of leadership he’s showing already as a freshman.”

Senior forward Caden Mauck (Kansas City, Mo., Blue Springs South HS) had 11 points and three assists while guard Drew Edwards (sophomore, Eden Prairie, Minn.) had five assists.

It’s a relatively short turnaround for Tuesday’s league tourney opener but Douma is hopeful the Dutch will be ready to make a closing kick.

“We’ve played well in the conference tournament and Adam (Flinn) and Caden (Mauck) know what it’s like to make a tournament run,” he said. “It’s easy to say we don’t care about wins and losses through this whole pandemic, but we still do care. So I hope we can learn from this, come back and execute a lot better.”

Posted by on Mar 6 2021. 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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