Drucker sparks Central College over Wartburg
Central College
PELLA — Just when the game looked to be out of reach, the Central College men’s basketball team found a pulse in a 91-86 come-from-behind victory over Iowa Conference rival Wartburg College Saturday.
Central (12-9 overall, 6-6 conference) trailed 74-64 with 9:19 remaining in the game. After a Dutch timeout, Central started its comeback cutting the Knights lead to three with 6:39 left on the clock.
Junior guard Nick Drucker (Grimes, Dallas Center-Grimes HS) jumpstarted Central with hustle plays and timely shots. Drucker’s two free throws with 33 seconds remaining gave the Dutch their first lead. A lead they would not relinquish.
“I can’t say enough about what Nick Drucker did tonight,” said coach Craig Douma. “He made some energy plays and it seemed to really get our team going.”
Drucker had 11 points, including six clutch free throws down the stretch, four rebounds and three assists, senior guard Pete Walker (Red Oak) led Central with 23 points, nine rebounds and six assists, junior forward Kyle Smith (Ionia, New Hampton HS) added 18 points and five rebounds, junior guard Trashawn Boyd (Normal, Ill., University HS) had 15 points and five assists and junior forward Austin Glawe (Aurelia Sioux Central HS) scored 11 points.
“Pete played really well tonight,” said Douma. “He hasn’t practiced since Tuesday and came out and played extremely tough tonight.”
Freshman forward Seth Wood (Branson, Mo.) had 10 points in his first-career start after replacing the sidelined senior forward Colby Taylor (Creston).
“We had a lot of different guys step up tonight with Colby being out,” said Douma.
Central was outrebounded by Wartburg 45-37 but outshot the Knights 46.6 percent shooting from the field to 40.8 percent. The Dutch defense suffocated Wartburg into shooting 27.8 percent in the second half.
“We tried a couple of different things defensively and once we switched back to man-to-man we were able to get stops,” said Douma. “Our defense in the last 5 minutes won us the game.”
The Dutch continue league play Wednesday at Loras College for a women’s-men’s doubleheader with the men beginning at 8 p.m. Loras won the first contest of the year against the Dutch 88-68 January 11.
