Central pulls out second women’s basketball road win
GRINNELL—The site changed, then changed again. The start time changed, then changed again. And finally, the Central College women’s basketball team journeyed to Grinnell College and gutted out a 62-57 decision for its second consecutive road victory Wednesday night.
As the result of a late-day power outage at Grinnell, just as the Dutch were preparing to depart, the game was temporarily rescheduled for 9 p.m. at Pella. But an hour later, power was restored and the game was rescheduled to be played at Grinnell, with the original start time pushed back an hour to 8 p.m.
Central (2-1) nonetheless was quick out of the gate, leading by as many as 11 points in the first quarter and 39-30 at intermission.
“I thought in the first half we played pretty clean,” said coach Justin Weiland, who was competing against the school where he was serving as assistant coach a year earlier. “I think we had maybe four turnovers, shot a good percentage and got to the free throw line a little bit.”
But a third-quarter surge put Grinnell (1-1) up 48-45 with 2:00 left in the period. Central was up 50-49 to start the fourth quarter, briefly trailed 57-56 with 1:29 left. But an Allison Van Gorp (junior, Pella) bucket followed by two free throws each from guards Emily Naughton (freshman, Indianola) and Jasmym Williams (sophomore, Denver, Colo., Arvada West HS) helped secure the win.
“We settled a little bit too much,” Weiland said. “We didn’t take the smartest shots at time but we got stops when it mattered, knocked down free throws when it mattered and just battled. We never folded and never wavered.”
Grinnell got 25 points from guard Erin Lillis. Naughton had 12 points for the Dutch while guard Abby Johnson (junior, Ankeny) had 11 and Van Gorp scored 10.
“Allison (Van Gorp) was huge tonight,” Weiland said. “That’s the most physical I’ve seen her play this season. Unfortunately, she got in foul trouble so we couldn’t use her quite as much as we would have liked. I thought Jasmyn (Williams) and Emily (Naughton) were big-time defenders for us all night on Lillis. They had the tough job of covering her and still running the offense. And Abby (Johnson) hit some tough shots for us. It was just a straight-up team effort.
Williams and freshman forward Kaitlyn Mumm (Des Moines, Des Moines Christian HS) each had eight rebounds as Central held a 50-39 advantage on the glass.
Neither team sparkled from the field, with Grinnell shooting 34.8% to Central’s 33.3%.
The Dutch are off until Tuesday when they open American Rivers play by taking on Simpson College in a women’s-men’s doubleheader.
“We know what we’re going to get with Simpson,” Weiland said of the perennial conference contenders. “I just hope we can get as many fans in there as we can.”
It’s Central’s home season opener with the women’s game starting at 5:30 p.m. at P.H. Kuyper Gymnasium. A video webcast and live stats can be accessed through athletics.central.edu.
