Flinn bucket is a Central men’s basketball OT tournament winner
DUBUQUE—There was no need for a timeout for the Central College men’s basketball team in the closing seconds of overtime at Loras College Tuesday night.
Dutch guard Adam Flinn (senior, St. Louis, Mo., Lafayette HS), who had already topped 1,000 career points earlier in the second half, drove the ball to the hoop and delivered two more with just two seconds remaining. That gave sixth-seeded Central a remarkable 97-95 overtime upset of the third-seeded Duhawks in the first round of the American Rivers Conference tournament.
“We didn’t want to give Loras a chance to set up their defense,” coach Craig Douma said. “We put the ball in Adam’s hands and he was able to get the corner on his defender.”
The win sends Central at just 3-3, into a 7 p.m. Thursday tournament semifinal at Storm Lake against second-seeded Buena Vista University. The 8-2 Beavers rocked Wartburg College at home Tuesday, 96-70. BV rolled past Central 97-67 at Pella last Saturday.
Tuesday Flinn became the 30th player in school history to reach the 1,000-point mark and finished with 21 for the night, giving him 1,007 for his career. Meanwhile his fellow Missouri classmate, forward Caden Mauck (senior, Kansas City, Mo., Blue Springs South HS), posted his 15th career double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
“Our seniors led the way,” Douma said. “I was so proud of Adam and Caden.”
Guard Sam Beatty (sophomore, Mount Pleasant) also had 17 points while forward Kole Tupa (freshman, Center Point, Center Point-Urbana HS) had 14. Guard Drake Johnson (sophomore, Stanton) came off the bench to score 11 points and grab five rebounds.
“Sam Beatty really stepped up tonight,” Douma said. “Kole had a great game and Drake Johnson was a key guy off the bench. That was probably his best game of the year. He brought energy and he defended really well.”
Central outrebounded Loras (7-5) 35-33 and held a 54.5%-45.9% shooting advantage.
Central bolted to a surprising 47-37 halftime lead and was up by as many as 14 points. But Loras regained the lead in the second half and was on top 89-86 in the final minute of regulation before Flinn connected on a critical game-tying and-one with 36 seconds remaining. Loras turned the ball over in the closing seconds and Flinn missed an off-balance 3-point try as the buzzer sounded to send the game into overtime.
“We defended, we rebounded and we got to the foul line,” said Douma, who led the Dutch on three memorable runs to the conference tourney finals from 2016-18. “And we did a great job of finishing at the rim.
“Our effort was outstanding. The guys came to play”
The Dutch, still playing without two injured starters, endured two health-related shutdowns during the abbreviated season. That made Tuesday’s victory all the more gratifying.
“For everything this team has been through, that’s tremendous,” Douma said. “It hasn’t been easy. I’m just so happy for this team. They showed a lot of resilience. Now we’ve just got to keep doing it.”
