Central women fall short in basketball comeback attempt
PELLA – Falling into a 19-2 hole early in the game, the Central College women’s basketball team nearly overcame the 17-point deficit before succumbing to the University of Dubuque Saturday 63-58.
Central (6-3, 2-1 American Rivers Conference) allowed Dubuque (4-5, 2-0 conference) to make a 17-0 run in the first five minutes of the first quarter and were forced to play catch up for the next 35 minutes.
Trailing by as much as 18 with 2:31 left in the second quarter, the Dutch cut the lead to 60-54 with 5:21 left in the fourth quarter on a Jasmyn Williams (senior, Commerce City, Colo., Arvada West HS) fast break lay-up off a steal.
The Dutch even cut the lead to 61-58 with 55 seconds remaining despite not scoring a basket by making four of six free throw attempts.
Emily Naughton (junior, Indianola) led all scorers with 20. Maddie Backer (freshman, New Ulm, Minn.) and Williams were also in double figures with 11 and 10, respectively. Backer had eight rebounds and CeCe Moore (junior, Waterloo, West HS) had seven. Williams chipped in three assists.
Central has two games at the Cruzin Classic next week on Miami Gardens, Florida, starting with an 11 a.m. (EST) contest against Emmanuel College (Mass.) on Wednesday.
